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American expatriate occult writer John Verney (Widmark) is asked by Henry Beddows (Elliot) to pick up his daughter Catherine (Kinski) from London airport. Catherine is a nun with the Children of the Lord, a mysterious heretical order based in Bavaria and founded by the excommunicated Roman Catholic priest Michael Rayner (Lee), where Beddows is allowed to come to visit Catherine only on her birthdays. But after Catherine arrives, Beddows then insists that she stay with Verney. The order, however, under Father Michael, makes all efforts to get Catherine back and uses black magic to stop Verney as he protects her. Verney learns that the order really harbours a group of practicing Satanists, who have prepared Catherine to become an avatar of Astaroth upon her eighteenth birthday. The priest kills Verney's friends and tries to get Verney. Using his knowledge of the occult Verney battles the priest and his henchmen to try to rescue Catherine. As the priest Rayner prepares to Baptise Catherine in blood, Verney manages to rescue Catherine by knocking the priest unconscious and carrying her out of the circle of blood created by priest Rayner. 

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Maria and Frieda Gelhorn, recently orphaned identical twin teenage girls, move from Venice to Karnstein in Central Europe to live with their uncle Gustav Weil. Weil is a stern Puritan and leader of the fanatical witch-hunting 'Brotherhood'. Both twins resent their uncle's sternness and one of them, Frieda, looks for a way to escape. Resenting her uncle, she becomes fascinated by the local Count Karnstein, who has the reputation of being "a wicked man". Count Karnstein, who enjoys the Emperor's favour and thus remains untouched by the Brotherhood, is indeed wicked and interested in Satanism and black magic. Trying to emulate his evil ancestors, he murders a girl as a human sacrifice, calling forth the vampiress Countess Mircalla Karnstein from her grave. Mircalla turns the Count into a vampire. Frieda, following an invitation from the Count, steals away to the castle at night, while Maria covers for her absence. In the castle, the Count transforms Frieda into a vampire, offering her a beautiful young chained victim. Returning home, Frieda threatens Maria to keep covering for her nightly excursions, but secretly fearing she might bite her sister. Meanwhile, Maria becomes interested in the handsome young teacher, Anton, who is initially infatuated with the more mysterious Frieda. Anton has studied what he calls "superstition", but becomes convinced of the existence of vampires when his sister falls victim to one. One night, when Frieda attacks a member of the Brotherhood, she is captured by her uncle and put in jail. While the Brotherhood debates the vampire woman's fate, the Count and his servants kidnap Maria and exchange her for Frieda in the jail cell. Anton goes to see Maria, not knowing that she is actually Frieda. She tries to seduce him, but he sees her lack of reflection in a mirror and repels her with a cross. Anton rushes to rescue Maria from a burning. Maria kisses a cross, revealing her innocence. Weil now listens to Anton's advice on the proper ways to fight vampires, and the two men lead the Brotherhood and the villagers to Castle Karnstein to destroy the Count. The Count and Freida attempt to flee, but are surprised by Weil. Weil captures Freida and decapitates her. The Count captures Maria, but Weil appears. Weil challenges the Count and is killed. Anton seizes his chance to pierce the Count's heart with a spear. Anton and Maria reunite, while Karnstein crumbles to dust. 

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Danova and Hyde-White are proprietors of a wax museum in Baltimore who are also amateur sleuths. They are drawn into the investigation of Jason Cravette (O'Neal), an insane murderer who kills a woman and then "marries" her. They help the police capture him, but he escapes and vows vengeance on all who "betrayed" him. The film used the gimmicks of the Fear Flasher (the screen flashing red for several seconds) and the Horror Horn (an audible alert) to alert viewers to grisly moments. The film was originally intended to serve as a pilot for the proposed series House of Wax, but was released theatrically because it was considered too intense for television at the time. The gimmicks were added (along with a few star cameos like Tony Curtis, Suzy Parker, and Marie Windsor) to increase the running time. There are plot similarities between this and Dark Intruder, which was released the previous year. The film is narrated by William Conrad. 

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Lizzie (Reba McEntire) and Alex Brooks (Tim Matheson) are a fairy tale young couple, wildly in love and the parents of a little girl named Emma. Without warning, Lizzie suffers a stroke at the age of twenty-four. Alex is informed by the hospital doctors that Lizzie has slipped into a deep coma and there is nothing to do but wait to see if she comes out of it. Determined to keep his vow to love Lizzie in sickness and in health, Alex decides to bring her home to care for her. Gail, Lizzie's best friend, helps and consoles Alex. However, Gail's help extends further when she aids in raising Emma as well. When Gail's husband is killed in a car crash, Alex, Gail and Emma form a practical family unit of their own. Twenty years after her stroke, Lizzie wakes up. Miraculously, she is pronounced perfectly healthy and begins to try to assimilate back into a world that has radically changed. Emma, who is about to be married, is thrilled to have her mother back, as are Alex and Gail. But, Lizzie's presence is also confusing for all of them as she attempts to move back into the place she rightfully occupies in their lives. 

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Having escaped from Central America, mercenaries James Shannon, Drew, Derek, Michel, Terry and Richard, get an offer from a British businessman, Roy Endean. He is interested in "certain resources" in the small African nation of Zangaro, which is run by the brutal dictator, General Kimba. Shannon goes on a reconnaissance mission to Zangaro's capital of Clarence and meets a British documentary filmmaker named North. However, Shannon's activities arouse the suspicions of the police and he is arrested, severely beaten and imprisoned. His wounds are treated by Dr. Okoye, a physician who was formerly a moderate political leader. North agitates for Shannon's release and he is deported after two days of torture. When Shannon tells Endean that there is no chance of an internal coup, Endean offers him $100,000 to overthrow Kimba by invading Zangaro with a mercenary army. Endean intends to install a puppet government led by Colonel Bobi, Kimba's greedy former ally. This would allow Endean to exploit the country's newly discovered platinum resources, an agreement guaranteed by Colonel Bobi. Shannon refuses the offer and instead proposes to his estranged wife that they start a new life in America. When she turns him down, he accepts Endean's offer on condition that he will have complete control of the operation. Provided with a million dollars for expenses, Shannon contacts some of his associates from Central America and they meet up to plan the coup. The group illegally procures a supply of Uzi submachine guns, ammunition, rocket launchers, mines and other weapons from arms dealers. North encounters Shannon by chance and suspects him of being a CIA agent. Shannon asks Drew to scare North away without hurting him but instead North is killed by a hitman hired by Endean to follow Shannon and his crew. A furious Shannon kills the assassin in turn and leaves his body at Endean's house during a dinner party held for Colonel Bobi. To transport the team to the coast of Zangaro, Shannon hires a small freighter and crew. At sea, the team is joined by a group of Zangaron exiles trained as soldiers by a former mercenary colleague. Once ashore, the mercenaries use their array of weapons to attack the military garrison where Kimba lives. Drew enters a shack in the barracks' courtyard and is killed by a young woman with a baby who shoots him in the back with a pistol. After the mercenaries storm the burning, bullet-scarred ruins of the garrison, Shannon blasts his way into Kimba's mansion. There he finds the dictator stuffing bricks of bills into a briefcase and kills him. Endean arrives by helicopter with Colonel Bobi and they enter the presidential residence, where they find Shannon and Dr. Okoye awaiting their overdue arrival. Shannon introduces Dr. Okoye as Zangaro's new president and silences Endean by shooting Bobi when he protests. Shannon, Derek and Michel load the body of Drew onto a Land Rover in line with the toast they drank on planning the operation, "Everyone Comes Home". The scene finishes with the mercenaries driving through the deserted streets of Clarence. 

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In the principal story, the Bones' culture hero, Big Johnson Bone, has suffered the disappearance of compatriot Gertie Bone, and is traveling with Mr. Pip: a cantankerous capuchin monkey. En route, Johnson and Pip are blown by a tornado into the valley of the earlier Bone comics, where they learn that the antagonist Rat Creatures are attacking every other inhabitant thereof. Accompanied by some local animals, and the miniature dragon Stillman, Johnson invades the Rat Creatures' territory to recover their hostages; but finds the latter imprisoned alive in the entrails of Tyson, the son of the Rat Creatures' Queen Maude. There, Johnson and his companions give Tyson indigestion, while Pip, Stillman, and the others are taken to Maude's dungeon. There, Stillman's fiery breath enables their escape, while Johnson's music prompts Tyson to disgorge him and the others. Trying to recapture them, Tyson severs his own tail, and Johnson severs Maude's to make a hat for himself. Thereafter Johnson and Pip establish a dry-goods store, which later becomes the center of Boneville. Upon their departure, Stillman is commended for protecting the animals by the Great Red Dragon of the earlier series, and Maude orders that all Rat Creatures be deprived of their tails annually, to compensate for the loss of her own. 

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Three hundred and fifty years have passed since humans first settled the Balkan star system, located approximately 150 light years from Earth, where a number of planets have been terraformed to resemble Earth. Two 11-year-old twins, Thor and Rai, live on the space colony Juno until they come home to find their parents have been murdered. The unknown assassins drop Thor and Rai on Chimaera, a secret planet used as a penal colony. Thor learns about Chimaeran society's four "Rings" and how to leave Chimaera by becoming the Beast King from Zagi, who rescued Thor and Rai after they immediately run into trouble on the planet. Thor proceeds to the Ochre Ring where he gets swept up into that Ring's politics and winds up defeating its Top, bringing him closer to becoming the Beast King. After several years Thor faces off with Zagi who has violently taken over the Blanc ring and is determined to rule over and change Chimaeran society. Their encounter ends with an uneasy truce and a plan to force Juno to negotiate with Thor. When Thor finally meets Odin, the President of Juno, the mystery of Thor's and Chimaera's secret origins are revealed. Odin tells Thor he is a genetically engineered human created from the DNA of all the previous Beast Kings. His mother Eve was the lead researcher at the facility where he was created, and was a surrogate mother to him. Thor's genes adapt to survive under any circumstances, so they mimicked Eve's physical appearance. This is the reason Thor appeared to be Rai's twin. Odin also reveals no new children are being born in the colonies, and that Thor is humanity's last hope for survival. Finally, Odin reveals a long-kept secret: that Earth was destroyed by an asteroid collision long ago, and humanity cannot return there, so they must adapt to survive in the Balkan Star System. However, Odin's plans involve dissecting Thor in order to mass-produce more genetically engineered humans capable of surviving in Balkan, and terraforming Chimaera, which would kill the planet's current inhabitants. With the help of Third, Thor stops the terraforming process, though Third dies in the process. Thor returns to Chimaera to live with Chen, Zagi and the rest of the planet's inhabitants. In the end, it is revealed that Thor's genes have adapted once again, causing him to take on Third's physical appearance. He and Chen appear to be together. He adopts an orphan girl they both found, naming her "Tiz", saying it means hope. 

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Dr. Jane Tiptree has withdrawn from public life to conduct sequestered research for the Eunice Corporation. The DARPA is wary of her work with genetically modified chickens but cannot legally interfere in her research. While in transport, one of Tiptree's chickens hatches a reptilian creature which kills the driver and escapes. Meanwhile, near her laboratory in the small town of Climax, Nevada, the populace begin suffering from a mysterious illness with flu-like symptoms. At a neighboring Eunice-owned quarry, watchman Doc Smith protects excavation equipment from environmentalists. He reports a trespasser, Ann Thrush, but Sheriff Fowler is investigating a series of gruesome killings, perpetrated by Tiptree's missing creature, a Deinonychus. Among the victims is the daughter of Eunice employee Jesse Paloma, but before he raises any suspicion to her research, Tiptree lures him into a laser-protected dinosaur pen where a fully grown Tyrannosaurus rex devours him. Despite the deaths, Thrush and a group of activists handcuff themselves to excavation equipment in a form of protest. They are encountered by the Deinonychus and everyone except Thrush is slaughtered. Still in shock, Thrush is brought back by Doc to his trailer, where she survives another attack by the creature. Doc discovers a truck with two corpses belonging to Eunice and contacts Tiptree on the vehicle's radio, deducing the creature originated from her facility. As he approaches the lab, Fowler discovers a dinosaur embryo in a carton of eggs and takes it for investigation. Doc infiltrates Tiptree's laboratory and, at gunpoint, she reveals her experiment subjects to him. The town's mysterious illness is caused by infected chicken eggs, which contain a lethal airborne virus and impregnate women with dinosaur embryos. Her objective is to exterminate the human race, which Tiptree faults as disastrous, and enable dinosaurs to repopulate the Earth. News of the town's deaths reach Eunice sponsors who trace it to Tiptree. In response, the government places the community under quarantine and resolves to kill civilians — infected or not — on sight. With the illness rapidly spreading, Fowler responds to a disturbance at a kennel. He confronts the Deinonychus, but both he and the creature suffer fatal wounds in the exchange. Top governmental officials, in a secure underground bunker, also begin plotting the repopulation of the human race in response to the virus; they envision a new social order prograted by strict fertilization policies and artificial wombs. At the laboratory, Doc attempts to escape with a cure to the illness and mistakenly enters the dinosaur pen. Tiptree releases the T. rex which pursues Doc out of the facility. Infected herself, Tiptree births a dinosaur and succumbs to the illness. Doc returns to Thrush, who has been exposed to the illness. The T. rex enters the quarry where Doc battles the creature using a Backhoe loader, impaling and killing the creature with Thrush's assistance. After injecting her with the serum, Doc is killed by government soldiers alerted to his presence, and both his and Thrush's bodies are burned. 

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After a successful exercise in camouflage, Mainwaring delivers a lecture on communications. Apparently, the four main targets are the gasometer, the railway bridge, the telephone exchange and the reservoir. They are vital to the town's survival, so two men will be posted at each location. If they see anything suspicious, they will phone Mainwaring via the nearest telephone box. Frazer asks Mainwaring what will happen if the telephone boxes are out of action, and many alternatives are suggested, including a heliograph, tick-tacking, shooting a hole in the top of the gasometer and setting fire to it, and tapping the railway line and laying your ear onto it (Pike dismisses this idea by telling Jones that a train may come and run over your ear). Pike and Godfrey admit they do not know how to use a telephone box; Mrs Pike believes they are unhygienic and Godfrey is hopeless with machines. After a hilarious practical demonstration, they march down to the telephone box nearest the reservoir. Pike is the first to get the lesson, but the recipient of the call is his mum, who gives Mainwaring and Wilson an earful. When a queue begins to form, Walker cons them into believing that telephone calls are going on ration from tomorrow. That evening, while out on patrol, Frazer and Walker spot a German plane crash into the reservoir. Walker phones Mainwaring, then mysteriously vanishes. Mainwaring and the rest of the platoon arrive, and their verbal attempts to persuade the Germans to surrender result in heavy gunfire. Mainwaring writes GHQ's phone number on some paper and tells Jones to memorise and destroy the paper when he phones GHQ, but Jones' muddle headedness as he says "Memorise and destroy the phone", and him reading the phone number upside-down (991 instead of 166), results in him ringing the Embassy cinema instead, and ends up believing that Googie Withers and Eric Portman are aboard the plane. He gets no joy from emergency services either, so ARP Warden Hodges helps Jones get through. Eventually, Lieutenant Hope- Bruce of the Coldstream Guards arrives and tells Mainwaring that they've surrounded the reservoir. He pompously tries to get Mainwaring to leave the situation in the hands of the regular army, but is quick to cancel an order for mortar bombs under Mainwaring's persuasion. Walker returns and tells Mainwaring that he's talked to the man in charge of the reservoir: he has opened the sluices, and the Germans will have to swim for it in less than two hours. Laughing, Mainwaring says they should leave the mopping up to the Coldstream Guards. 

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The premise of the show revolves around the fact that Shaggy Rogers' incredibly rich Uncle Albert Shaggleford disappears and names Shaggy as his sole heir for an inheritance. With the help of the inheritance, Shaggy has upgraded the Mystery Machine, giving it the ability to transform itself into a number of other different vehicles, like the "Hotdog Making Machine". Dr. Albert Shaggleford had made some enemies before disappearing. Among the most dangerous is the archetypal evil genius and technology pirate out to take over the world and or become immortal—Dr. Phineas Phibes (who gets his name from the Vincent Price villain The Abominable Dr. Phibes). Dr. Phibes recruits other sidekicks and minions to help him with his plans, among them Dr. Trebla. It appears that the supposedly late Dr. Shaggleford was, beyond being rich, an inventor in his own right, and his clueless young heir is now in possession of some very interesting nano technology. The top secret nanotech formula has been mixed in with Scooby Snacks, which, when eaten, cause a variety of day-saving side effects. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo have a mission: armed with an updated Mystery Machine, a loyal robot servant named Robi, their new riches, and the new and improved Scooby Snacks, they must stop the evil plans of Phineas Phibes and save the world. In episode 2, Shaggy upgrades the Mystery Machine from its original form, to a high-tech transforming vehicle. However, it usually transforms into machines inappropriate for the tasks at hand (however, in episode 11, it does transform into vehicles appropriate to finish the Polar Bear 3000). In their spare time, Shaggy and Scooby are fans of the show Chefs of Steel, and the famous mystery solver Chad Chaddington. 

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34-year-old firefighter Terry Lynch (Robert Urich) lives with his 20-year-old brother Jimmy (Timothy Hutton) in New York City. They have spent most of their respective lives taking care of each other as both of their parents are deceased. Terry, while off duty, rushes from a neighborhood bar into an apartment fire to rescue a young girl, when firefighters inadvertently aim the fire hose at him. The force of the stream pushes Terry, with the child in his arms, through a window and some four stories down, landing flat on his back on the roof of a parked car. The girl is uninjured, but Terry is seriously hurt. Six months later, and after countless rejections from welfare, workers' compensation and others, Jimmy goes to City Hall with the letters to show to Mayor John J. Tyler (Robert Culp). But when Tyler rebukes him, calling Terry a drunk, Jimmy promptly sneaks into Tyler's office and pastes all the letters on the office walls while security is diverted by a fire set in a nearby bathroom. Believing Terry was behind the vandalism (as Terry's name was on all the letters), the police, led by Lieutenant Ryan (Peter Boyle), Tyler's chief security officer, come to Hooly's, the brothers' hangout, to arrest Terry. When Terry, drunk and high on pills, takes a swing at Ryan, he roughs Terry up while Jimmy is clubbed by another officer when he tries to help. While posting Terry's bail at the police station, Jimmy meets Danielle "Danny" Boudreau (Kim Cattrall), a social worker assigned to Terry's case; she tells Jimmy that Terry is hospitalized in a body cast after a suicide attempt. Jimmy goes to Battery Park to again confront Mayor Tyler at his anti-graffiti speech, but is pushed away by police. After seeing Tyler unveil a giant apple, which slowly revolves to show handiwork by vandals saying "Zimmerman Flew, Tyler Knew" to the delight of protesters at the speech, Jimmy is inspired to start a campaign of his own. Earlier, the Daily News ran a story about Tom Zimmerman, the city's former public works commissioner, who had fled the country to avoid trial for an unspecified crime. The report implies that Tyler not only knew of Zimmerman's fleeing, but masterminded it, referring to Tyler's ordering a continuation of Zimmerman's trial until after the upcoming election; Tyler denies all knowledge and responsibility. Armed with this knowledge, Jimmy, adopting the alter ego of "Turk 182", begins his personal battle of wits with the mayor by, among other things, leaving his mark on a supposedly graffiti- proof subway car to be used by Tyler in an anti-vandalism campaign; surreptitiously exchanging an airplane banner ad for one that says "Tyler Knew! Turk 182!"; and hacking into a scoreboard computer (with a friend's help) at Giants Stadium during halftime of a football game at which Tyler and New York's governor make an appearance. Jimmy's goal to embarrass Mayor Tyler broadens to the point where "Turk 182" begins leaving his mark in numerous places, capturing the imagination of the city's entire population, most of whom revere Turk as a hero. But Jimmy soon develops an ulterior motive for his actions: impressing Danny. When Jimmy and Danny return to his apartment after the Giants game, Jimmy goes back out for pizza, and Danny explores the brothers' apartment. Looking through photo albums in their keepsake trunk, she finds an award for Terry with a nameplate on the front bearing Terry's nickname "Turk". When she finds Terry's fireman's cap with badge number 182 on it, she realizes that Jimmy is "Turk 182". Jimmy returns to find a thoroughly impressed Danny waiting for him in his bed, and the two engage in sexual intercourse. Police Detective Kowalski (Darren McGavin) opens up a case file on "Turk 182", while Jimmy pleads guilty to papering the Mayor's office and is given a nominal fine. When Jimmy and Danny visit Terry in the hospital, Terry tells Jimmy that he's going to try to kill himself again when he is cut out of his body cast. After spotting Kowalski and Ryan waiting outside his apartment, Jimmy decides to reveal himself as Turk. But when he and Danny arrive at the Daily News Building they find themselves waiting in line behind several other crank characters all claiming to be Turk. Just as Jimmy leaves in exasperation he is intercepted by a TV reporter who suggests that if Jimmy is the real Turk, he should give an interview on camera. On the evening news, a reporter reveals Jimmy as "Turk 182", but describes him as a disgruntled civil servant seeking a pension. Angered that the interview was not aired and he is being called a "nut case", Jimmy decides to put Turk to rest once and for all, but he tells no one, not even Danny, what his final act will be. Mayor Tyler appears at a dedication ceremony for the 75th anniversary of the Queensboro Bridge. Ryan, his job now on the line after the Giants Stadium debacle, clamps down security on and around the bridge in preparation of the ceremony. With all local media on hand, the mayor throws the switch lighting up the bridge sign. The lettering on the bridge, which is supposed to say "Queensborough 1909 1984", instead reads gibberish; Jimmy, disguised in an electrical worker uniform, is up on the scaffolding rearranging the words. All hell breaks loose when spotlights and cameras catch Jimmy on the rigging; TV stations break into regular programming to cover the incident live, and the rally crowd, aroused by Turk's presence, begin chanting "Turk! Turk!" much to Tyler's mortification. Ryan dispatches all police to climb up in the scaffolding to catch Jimmy, but they cannot reach him because he greased all the bridge's lower girders. At the hospital, Danny and Kowalski are with Terry when a group of patients barge in with a TV tuned to one of the channels showing Jimmy on the bridge. The news anchor then shows Jimmy's interview at the Daily News. Now focusing on his brother's safety instead of his own troubles, Terry, Danny, and Kowalski go to the Queensboro Bridge to get Jimmy down. Tyler also catches a part of Jimmy's interview; seeing it was "that kid", Tyler can only turn away from the TV in total defeat. Still frustrated in efforts to stop Jimmy, Ryan goes to the bridge power house and orders the sign turned off. But when the foreman, citing union and safety issues, refuses, Ryan draws his gun and shoots out the controls and knocking the power off. After Ryan leaves, the foreman turns on the auxiliary power. Undaunted, Ryan climbs aboard an industrial forklift and, when in range, opens fire on Jimmy himself. Kowalski, having arrived with Danny and Terry moments earlier, goes to the lift and disables the hydraulics, knocking Ryan unconscious. Jimmy, now unhindered, completes his task, and reconnects the power to the 25-foot-high letters which now read "TURK 182", all to the wild cheering of the crowd and the TV audience. Amid the cheering, Tyler says to Deputy Mayor Hanley, "As soon as [Jimmy] gets down we're gonna find him and tell him we've been rooting for him the whole time!" 

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With his partner Donald dying of AIDS, James asks his mother Audrey, a businesswoman in San Diego, to travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas and notify Donald's estranged mother, Luanne. A small town waitress, Luanne must overcome her own overt homophobia and learn to love her son unconditionally. In the process, Luanne cements a lasting friendship with Audrey, who is struggling with her own internalized homophobia. 

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A novel entitled The Seven Minutes, purporting to be the thoughts in a woman's mind during seven minutes of sexual intercourse, is reputed to be the most obscene piece of pornography ever written, with massive public debate as to whether or not the book should be banned. A bookseller named Ben Fremont sells The Seven Minutes to Jeffrey Griffith, a college student with no history of violence. The book is found in Jeffrey's possession after his arrest for committing a brutal rape and murder. District Attorney Elmo Duncan takes advantage of the public interest in the case and conspires to publicly link The Seven Minutes with the Jeffrey Griffith trial. His plan is to not only ban the book, but to make possessing it illegal on the grounds of public morality and safety. Ultimately he wishes to use this platform of moral decency to unseat the current senator in an upcoming election. Luther Yerkes, a wealthy businessman who has clashed with the incumbent senator, secretly funds Duncan's censorship campaign. This leads to the arrest of Ben Fremont for providing the book to Griffith, as well as legal action leveled at the book's publisher Phillip Sanford as he refuses to cooperate in an attempt to locate the pseudonymous author of the book, "J.J. Jadway." Sanford claims that the real Jadway committed suicide in Europe years before due to despondency over the book's reception. Sanford, believing the book is an artistic masterpiece and that legal action represents a dangerous precedent, calls upon his old friend, attorney Michael Barrett, to defend Fremont. This results in a landmark obscenity trial in which numerous witnesses are called to speak on the difference between artistic expression and obscenity and the public good versus freedom of choice. Unexpectedly, Senator Thomas Bainbridge takes the stand in the book's defense. Bainbridge reveals that he wrote The Seven Minutes based on a powerful sexual experience that changed his life. At the time he wrote the book, it would have been damaging for him to reveal himself as its author, therefore he invented the name "J.J. Jadway" and had his publisher, Phillip Sanford, spread rumors of Jadway's death to protect Richardson's identity. In fact, much of his testimony is motivated by a desire to separate sexual openness and honesty, which he believes is a public good, from harmful exploitation. After Bainbridge's testimony, the jury finds the book not obscene. The prosecutor vows to try the case again in a different part of the state, but defense attorney Barrett states that is ridiculous to restrict what people are allowed to read in the privacy of their own homes or to use art as a scapegoat for much deeper societal issues. 

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Before its current state, the TWF was an honorable federation that was led by its older "wise thumbs," with TWF legend Newt Knuckle as its president. Everything was "thumbs up" in the TWF until a rookie thumb wrestler named Pageboy Skull came in and demanded a top spot in the TWF without working his way there or showing respect to any of the elder wrestlers, such as Newt Knuckle, Colonel Cossack (who is now a commentator for TWF), The Stash and Phineas D. Finger. President Newt Knuckle swiftly denied Pageboy Skull his request, causing Pageboy Skull to revolt against the TWF. Pageboy Skull, who later rechristened himself Senator Skull, rebelled against the TWF and formed a group of renegades called the Evil Sinistras, who were determined to take over the TWF and possibly the world. In response, a group of honorable thumb wrestlers called the Mighty Dexteras formed to defend the TWF from the Sinistras. As a result of the split, elder thumbs such as Newt Knuckle and Phineas D. Finger disappeared. Others, such as Colonel Cossack and The Stash, simply retired. Now, the Sinistras and the Dexteras do battle on a weekly basis as they compete for the TWF Championship. 

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Sister Elizabeth, the mother superior of a medieval convent, has visions of Mary Magdalene and a skeletal dead nun. Father Henry, the abbot, and his servant Richard are summoned by the convent's abbess to help with the hysteria spreading among the order. Elizabeth recounts the confessions and fantasies of the nuns, flagellating herself and becoming excited as she does so: Sister Sarah masturbates; Sisters Mary and Helena flagellate one another and then have sex. Sister Catherine is violated by Fathers James and Peter. Finally, Sisters Jane, Teresa and Helen engage in three-way sex and violate Sister Ann after tying her to a cross. Elizabeth writhes violently in her cell and, as she dies, is tormented by visions of a crucified woman and Christ's beating Sacred Heart. Mother Elizabeth and an (imagined) demonic Mary Magdalene (who has relapsed from sainthood, back into the sex worker the church once claimed she was) debate desire and chastity within what seems to be a heavenly antechamber. Mary remarks to Elizabeth that, as her convent is full of repressed female desire, the Mother Superior too is enveloped within this voluptuous fold. Elizabeth details four fantasy vignettes. These are interspersed with conversations between the convent's former abbess, a priest, Abbess Elizabeth, an odd dead zombie nun and an actress Eileen Daly playing the spirit of Catechism.. The sex scenes conform to standard pornographic sequencing. They each start simply and culminate in erotic release at the end. There are scenes of the full lesbian sexual gamut, which extends from episodes of individual nuns' self-stimulation to non-monogamous lesbian sex to a final nun-centered crucifix-bondage scene, with copious use of the whip and the rope. 

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The film opens, after the murder of a woman in dark alley by a mysterious caped figure, on a scene between Kingsford and his fiancé Eveleyn Lang (Meredith). Kingsford is an expert on the supernatural and along with his dwarf assistant Nikola (Charles Boldender) he is called in by police to uncover the scheme of a Sumerian demon to return to earth and take over a human body. A series of murders of women similar to those committed in 1888 London by Jack the Ripper has taken place in San Francisco; in the San Francisco killings, however, a series of statuettes carved of ivory and depicting a repulsive reptilian head is left beside each body. In each statue found at a victim’s feet, the demon in the little figurines emerges from the back of a man, budding out farther with each crime. It as though with each killing, the demon is freeing itself from its host a little bit more. There also seem to be connections between the four victims. Kingsford initially consults an old Chinese curio dealer, Chi Zang (Peter Brocco) for advice. The dealer, (whose shop has a statue of a multi-armed Chinese god who may be Yu Lueh) shows Kingsford a mummified creature with a hideous fanged mouth which the priest claims is a Sumerian demon. The mummified demon is accompanied by a seven-spoked wheel. The priest says that the demon will commit seven killings, one for each spoke, until it accomplishes its purposes, according to mystic periods of time known only to itself. Kingsford picks up the small mummy but drops it when it becomes hot and leaves him with a scratched hand. Kinsford then goes to the import shop of his friend Robert Vandenburg where they earlier arranged to meet. A shadow trails him, and in the shop, Kingsford is attacked by the hump-backed, long-fingernailed, black hat-wearing, caped and demonically-growling figure who murdered the woman at the start of the film. Kingsford fends off the attack and the figure disappears. The police arrive, as does Vandenburg. 

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Carrie White is a shy 16-year-old girl who lives with her fanatically religious mother Margaret. Carrie is unpopular at school and is often ostracized by her peers. When Carrie experiences her first period in the school shower, she panics because she was never told of this process. Carrie's classmates humiliate her by throwing tampons and chanting "Plug it up" until the gym teacher, Miss Collins, intervenes. Following conversations with Miss Collins and the principal, Carrie is dismissed from school. After arriving home, Margaret considers Carrie's menstruation to be a manifestation of sinful sexual fantasies, and she locks Carrie in an altar-like "prayer closet" to pray for forgiveness. At school, Collins reprimands Carrie's tormentors and punishes them with a week-long after-school detention in gym class. Those who skip the punitive measure are suspended for three days and banned from the upcoming prom. Christine "Chris" Hargensen, a wealthy, popular girl who is Carrie's longtime bully and the leader of Carrie's classmates, walks out. Chris plots vengeance against Carrie with her boyfriend Billy Nolan and her best friend Norma. They break into a local farm and kill pigs to drain their blood into a bucket, which they place above the school's main stage in the gymnasium. Norma, a prominent figure in the school's student council regime, plans to rig the Prom Queen election in Carrie's favor to get her on the stage. Meanwhile, Sue Snell, a deeply remorseful classmate, asks her handsome and popular boyfriend, Tommy Ross, to invite Carrie to prom. Carrie initially thinks the proposition is a prank, but he insists that it is genuine and she reluctantly accepts after being consoled by Miss Collins. Back at home, she begins to discover that she has the power of telekinesis as she shakes off her shyness. In spite of Margaret's cries of protest that Tommy is using her, Carrie puts on a flattering dress and hairstyle for the prom. Margaret sees Carrie's telekinetic powers and denounces her as a witch before Carrie leaves with Tommy. During the prom, Chris and Billy hide under the stage while the other conspirators switch the ballots to ensure that Carrie wins the Prom Queen title. As Carrie stands onstage with Tommy, finally beginning to feel accepted by her peers, Chris pulls the rope attached to the bucket of pig blood and douses her. The empty bucket hits Tommy in the head, knocking him unconscious, and the crowd is left shocked and speechless at the prank as Chris and Billy sneak out. Carrie begins to hallucinate that everyone is mocking her, remembering her mother's claim that "they're all gonna laugh at you." In a sudden fit of rage, she uses her telekinesis to seal the exits from the gym and set it on fire, killing most of the attendees. Sue survives, having been thrown out of the prom by Miss Collins earlier, but watches as the students and teachers die. As Carrie walks home, Chris and Billy attempt to run her over with Billy's car, but Carrie senses their presence and kills them by causing their car to overturn and explode. As Carrie scrubs herself clean at home, Margaret reveals that she was conceived after a rape by her drunken father, an act that Margaret shamefully admits she enjoyed. Saying that "sin never dies," Margaret comforts Carrie, then stabs her in the back with a kitchen knife and begins to chase her through the house. Carrie levitates several sharp implements and sends them flying toward Margaret, pinning her to a doorway and crucifying her. Carrie then incinerates the house with them still inside. Some time later, Sue - the only survivor of the prom - struggles to deal with the trauma she has experienced. She has a nightmare in which she lays flowers on the charred remains of Carrie's home, with a "for sale" sign vandalized in red paint with the phrase "Carrie White burns in Hell!" Suddenly, Carrie's bloody arm reaches from beneath the rubble and grabs Sue's forearm. Sue wakes up screaming as her mother comforts her. 

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In the cartoon, Pete Puma is trying to raid the henhouse Foghorn Leghorn is guarding; Foghorn decides to have some fun with Pete. He tells Pete what he really wants is a Venezuelan Racing Chicken which has unfortunately run back to Venezuela. Pete runs there and back in time. Next, he really wants an Irish Wrestling Chicken, which turns out to be a rope tied to a bull's tail (this bull resembles Toro from Bully for Bugs). When Pete makes off with a chicken, nest and all, Foghorn grabs the chicken, then says Pete's found the rare Mongolian Disappearing Chicken, and the only way to make it reappear is tap dancing; Pete dances into a hole; Foggy drops an anvil on Pete's head ("a whole lotta lumps!"). Foggy walks away, chuckling at his cleverness, when a genuine Irish Wrestling Chicken pins him down ("I'm glad I say I'm glad I didn't show him the Norwegian Exploding Chicken"). During the cartoon, Foghorn tries to convince Pete to go hunting for rabbits to which Pete quickly and frantically declines ("uh-uh! No rabbits!"). This is most likely referencing Pete's previous run in with Bugs Bunny during the cartoon Rabbit's Kin. 

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The career of homosexual art historian Pieter, who has been working as an archivist at a municipality, has been going nowhere for 20 years: he is ignored by his colleagues, and for many years now, as a sort of revenge, he has been taking a painting from the depot in the cellar on his birthday. Brest, his boss's boss, takes Vermeulen out for a meal. Pieter expects good news, but instead hears he must return the paintings: in any case the eight paintings by Van Goppel (who died recently) which all of a sudden have become worth a lot of money. This produces a major problem, because Pieter has sold four of the Van Goppels in order to pay for his apartment. If anyone can help him, it would be his old student friends Joep and Tom. Joep, a politician who is slated to become the next Minister for Foreign Affairs, has been turned out of his house by his wife Conny because he proved to have an extramarital affair with Jennie. He thought he would be able to stay at Tom's, but Tom went insane a couple of months earlier as a result of cocaine abuse. As a lawyer, Tom wants to take the case of Pieter himself. Joep cannot help with Pieter's problem now, because he's on the verge of being appointed. The rancid Maarten comes also; his pretentious stage play "The Wheel of Ixion" is about to have its opening night, in which Joep's almost 18-year-old daughter is to play Laura, a role where she stands naked on the stage. Joep is with him there and does not know that Maarten had sex with Laura. The friends celebrate Joep's birthday by hiring a prostitute for him, but that leads to tears from Joep and a brawl with Maarten who also wanted to use her services. The friends go to the première of Maarten's play. Joep's mistrust about his daughter acting in the play disappears. He gets a chance afterwards of a reconciliation with his wife, but bungles it totally. Tom goes crazy and goes into the city to obtain cocaine. Meanwhile, Pieter tries to convince his colleagues to attest that the Van Goppels had been given to him. When the friends return to Pieter, they look back on their past. Just when everything seems about to end well for Pieter, Joep withdraws from the matter because he has become Minister for Culture. Tom breaks down now entirely and runs away. Maarten, who still has not confessed to Joep what he did with his daughter, continues to wait until Pieter comes home and gives him the bad news. Pieter cuts one of his arteries open in the bathroom. 

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As the 'all clear' air raid siren blares, Mainwaring and Wilson wake up from a snooze, but both are quick to deny it. As they go into the hall and begin to make the tea, Mainwaring remarks on a low-flying plane that passed over Walmington. The platoon arrive and Mainwaring asks them to hand in their ammunition, but Jones admits they haven't got any. They wasted it all shooting at the low-flying Nazi plane. Godfrey is the only one with a full magazine, because by the time he had got it out of his overcoat, the plane had flown away. As the platoon prepare to make a cup of tea, Mainwaring bursts their bubble by saying their rifles have to be pulled through and boiled out. Mainwaring decides to organise a thorough search around the area to find the missing cartridges. As they leave to supervise the rifle maintenance, Jones is having a bit of trouble removing his pull-through, and several methods are tried, including tying it to the banister and pulling it out. However, it destroys the banister, much to the Verger's chagrin. When Mainwaring ties it to a thicker pillar, the string breaks and it becomes impossible to remove. Mrs Pike arrives to take Pike home, and solves Jones' rifle problem by pulling the string out from the other end. Later, the empty cartridges are collected, but Mainwaring decides to hold a Court of Inquiry to find out what really happened. Wilson is sceptical, but Mainwaring reminds him that honesty is the best policy. The two officers overseeing the Inquiry, Captain Cutts and Captain Pringle, are keen to get it over and done with as soon as possible, as they have made alternative arrangements. Just before they arrive, a box of ammunition arrives at the church hall, and Mainwaring quickly hands it out to the men, and Jones arrives in his old army uniform that he wore under Lord Kitchener. He lines the witnesses outside, and they prepare to begin the Court of Inquiry. However, they are twice interrupted by members of the choir as they arrive for the Vicar's practice. Through the course of the enquiry, it is revealed that Jones gave the order to fire. Suddenly, thunder crashes, and the platoon rush in, not wanting to be soaked. Cutts and Pringle, who are becoming quite irritated, decide that the platoon should demonstrate what happened. Jones states that as soon as he spotted the plane, he gave the order to shoot. Mainwaring corrects him by saying "fire", but the platoon follow his command, and shoot the ceiling, bringing it down on top of them. Mainwaring suggests they meet same time, same place, next week. 

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Valley of the Stereos involves an escalating battle between a hippie ('River', played by Danny Mulheron) and a metalhead (Murray Keane) who live next door to each other in the countryside. Following the metalhead's late-night music playing, the two battle over who can drive the other away with their incompatible music tastes. Each accumulates a larger and larger pile of stereos, until eventually River converts his house into a multi-stereo mecha and (accidentally) blasts both homes out of existence. 

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Walker arrives to pay some money into the bank, and a rather posh looking gentleman is standing behind him. As Pike prepares to cash his money, he discovers one of Walker's £5 notes is a forgery. Mainwaring is shocked to learn that the money came from him, and decides to hush it up. As Walker leaves, the posh gentleman introduces himself as Mr West, a Bank Inspector. Mainwaring's face falls. He takes him into the office, where West tells him that his monthly report to Head Office has become irregular. Mainwaring blames it on his Home Guard duties. West is shocked to see a Lewis gun Mk1 perched on the windowsill, and berates Mainwaring for putting the bank in danger. Suddenly, the air raid siren sounds and their meeting is cut short. West is less than pleased when they return two hours later, complaining that it could have been one of their planes they heard. Suddenly, he notices a hole in the roof, and flies into a fit of rage, believing that while they were in the Anderson shelter, someone broke into the bank. As he picks up loose notes, both Mainwaring and Wilson vanish. West searches for them, and is shocked to see a massive hole in the floor, where Mainwaring and Wilson are stranded, clutching an unexploded bomb on their laps. West rushes off to get help, bumping into Jones, who quickly takes charge and puts the bank under martial law. He rushes off to get the rest of the platoon and ring the Bomb Disposal Unit, while Pike and ARP Warden Hodges dither about in the office. Eventually, Jones returns with the platoon, where a brief argument ensues after Mainwaring orders him to get the men out (as he feels there is no point in the platoon risking their lives as well). Initially, Walker agrees with the idea, only to be upbraided for it by an outraged Jones. Jones then asks the rest of the platoon if they want to leave as well, which all the men refuse to do (Godfrey reminds the platoon that Mainwaring would not leave any of them if they were in the same situation; while Pike adds that he couldn't leave his "Uncle Arthur", as his mother would not like it if he did). Walker then tells Jones that he isn't going to leave either. Shortly afterwards, Hodges returns and has a brief argument with Jones as to who is in charge of the situation; this is quickly resolved when Captain Rogers of the Bomb Disposal Unit arrives and takes charge. Unfortunately, both the keys to the strongroom are still under Mainwaring and Wilson's possession, so Frazer uses a fishing rod to yank up one of the keys. Rogers enters the strongroom, and identifies the bomb as a 'trembler'. He exasperates Mainwaring and Wilson by saying he has to go back to GHQ to pick up some special equipment. Jones realises that Mainwaring and Wilson cannot hang on much longer, so he proposes an elaborate plan to remove the bomb from them. They tie the bomb to a piece of rope and decide to pull it up, but in the process, it takes Jones with it. Later, they all have a drink in the pub, and West congratulates the platoon for saving the bank. Mrs Pike rushes in and offers her compliments to Mainwaring and Wilson. West offers to pay for the drinks, but the note he uses is a dud, so Walker pays it with money he nabbed from the bank. 

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Master Wang is actually the 11th prince of Manchuria in disguise. Posing as a sophisticated jewellery dealer and connoisseur of fine art and wine, the prince is trying to determine which of the other 14 heirs to the throne is trying to assassinate him. A jewel thief, Dirty Ho (Wong Yue) runs afoul of the prince, who uses Wong Yue to help him flush out his enemies. Wang is a martial arts expert, but in order to conceal his identity he systematically hides his skills, even as he deploys them. In the opening sequence of the film proper (after a title sequence which already features two highly abstract fight sequences by the principals) Wang encounters a jewel thief named Dirty Ho at a brothel. They come into conflict by vying with one another for the attentions of the courtesans. Dirty Ho, who is not too bright, can't figure out why his efforts to fight with the seemingly cowardly, effete Wang inevitably result in clumsy disaster. It is Wang, of course, who skillfully deflects Ho into tripping over chairs and so forth. In a later confrontation with Ho, Wang pretends that a female musician is his "bodyguard", invisibly manipulating the bewildered woman's arms, legs and musical instrument in order to make her fight with Ho and eventually to graze him in the forehead with a poisoned blade. It is, however, all part of Wang's scheme: he is secretly protecting Ho from the police, and is training the bumbling Ho as his disciple and bodyguard. Ho eventually seeks out Wang in order to discover the antidote for the poison, which Wang administers to him in return for Ho's becoming his disciple. Ho is initially puzzled at this since he has not detected any kung fu prowess in his master at all, and he remains initially a clueless bystander during two attempts on Wang's life: first, an attack at a wine-tasting, and then a visit to an antique-dealer's shop. Wang manages to defend himself admirably while maintaining the fiction that he is simply having a friendly aesthetic conversation with his opponents. Only at the end of the antique-shop attack does Ho figure out what's going on and intervene, but Wang receives a wound in the leg through a stratagem of the antiques dealer. The master and his disciple sequester themselves in their residence - Wang for recovery, Ho for some kung fu lessons. But it is nearly time for the princes to assemble for the announcement of the heir to the throne, and so Wang and Ho undertake the dangerous journey to Peking with Wang in disguise, being pushed in a wheelchair by Ho. Defeating an army of assassins in a ruined city, they manage to extract from the assassins' leader the identity of the Prince (Number Four) who is targeting Wang. The heroes then encounter their most formidable enemy, General Liang plus two other bad guys, and a climactic fight sequence follows. They manage to defeat their enemies just in time for the prince to enter the throne room in time for the Emperor's appearance. Ho, outside the door, passes his master his necklace of beads on the pole they've used during the fight; the Prince takes them and deftly uses the pole to send Ho flying outside the room. The film ends with a freeze-frame on Dirty Ho in mid-air. 

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Wilson is sitting at Mainwaring's desk, when Captain Bailey arrives. He asks Wilson about how long Mainwaring has been in charge. Wilson says it was ever since they were Local Defence Volunteers. Bailey is surprised because there were no commissions in the LDV, and Wilson admits that Mainwaring made himself a captain, and Bailey tells him that it's more ordinary to have a lieutenant in charge of a platoon, so Mainwaring must remove one of his pips. Wilson is delighted, and is even more delighted when Walker brings him his new hat: a beret. Wilson, with some glee, practises what he is going to say to Mainwaring, who then arrives, announcing that he's recruited a Drill Sergeant for drill practice. He tells Mainwaring about Bailey's visit, but Mainwaring laughs it off. Mainwaring rings GHQ, and speaks to a sergeant, who knows nothing about it. Mainwaring waits for Wilson's explanation, and concludes that Wilson is jealous of him, and that is the reason why he bought a beret. GHQ rings; Mainwaring answers, and is horrified to learn that Wilson was telling the truth. Wilson insists that he is sorry for Mainwaring, even though he is laughing in his face. Godfrey sees Mainwaring removing his pips, offering to assist based on his former experience in tailoring, but is quickly dismissed by Mainwaring. Mainwaring is determined to make sure nobody finds out, but Godfrey blabs to the rest of the platoon. Frazer, Jones and Walker wonder whether he's been promoted. When the parade is about to be dismissed, Mainwaring emerges from the office with a rubber tyre on his shoulders, covering up his badge of rank. Walker and Frazer point out that they can't salute Mainwaring unless they can see his badge of rank. Mainwaring is about to reveal the truth, when the Verger comes rushing in, saying that the Bismarck has been sunk. Mainwaring quickly dismisses the platoon, the Navy having "saved his bacon". Next day, Captain Bailey returns and tells Wilson that Mainwaring hasn't even been commissioned as a lieutenant, and he must join the ranks. He adds that Wilson will be in charge for the time being. He gives Wilson the news in an envelope and leaves via the main hall to avoid Mainwaring. Wilson hands Mainwaring the letter, and quickly leaves the office. He hears a shot, and thinks Mainwaring has committed suicide. He and Jones rush in, and Jones explains that it was Private Godfrey's rifle that fired, and they help a stunned Mainwaring into a chair. Wilson commands the next parade and admits he will be leading them on the divisional scheme on Sunday. Mainwaring enters, wearing a private's uniform, nobly declaring that the protection of the town must come before pride. The platoon are stunned as he joins the ranks. Wilson calls the platoon to attention, but Mainwaring mistimes his drill, while Jones has improved. However, the roles are soon reversed. Suddenly the pre-arranged Drill Sergeant, Gregory, turns up and immediately barks orders at the men, insulting many members of the platoon. Mainwaring speaks up in their defence but, now as a private, is picked on for speaking out of turn. However, he is soon given a taste of his own medicine when they practise sloping arms. Jones mucks it up, accidentally throwing his rifle on the Drill Sergeant's foot. At the exercise Wilson does not make a good job of leadership. Jones volunteers to be the scout, but ants climb up his trousers and he has to take them off to get rid of them. Believing it's the signal to advance, the platoon move forward, but soon find themselves in an ambush. It is a disheartened platoon that heads back to Walmington. Sponge remarks there'll soon be no platoon for the new officer to take charge of. Therefore, the platoon decide to write to GHQ, asking for Mainwaring to be commissioned. In his letter, Walker offers a couple of bottles of scotch "if it will make any difference". Frazer declines to write with his colleagues, instead writing at home and asking for promotion himself. As a result of the letters, Mainwaring is reinstated and everything is back to normal... almost. He and Wilson then muse on the events of the past few days. When Wilson laughs at the fact that Mainwaring had had no authority whatsoever to command the platoon, the latter then shocks Wilson by saying that he, therefore, had had no authority to promote him to sergeant in the first place. Wilson realises what Mainwaring is implying, but the latter plays on the moment by saying that he was sure everything would be sorted out ... and then says nonchalantly, "Perhaps you'd like to borrow my penknife!" (to remove his sergeant's stripes). 

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In 1935 England, 13-year-old Briony Tallis is from a wealthy family set to perform a play she has written for an upcoming family gathering. Looking out of her bedroom window, she spies on her older sister, Cecilia, and the housekeeper's son, Robbie Turner, on whom Briony has a crush. During their argument near the fountain, Robbie accidentally breaks a vase and yells at Cecilia to stay where she is - so as to avoid cutting her feet on the broken pieces on the ground. Still angered, Cecilia then strips off her outer clothing, stares at him and climbs into the basin to retrieve one of the pieces. Briony misinterprets the scene as Robbie ordering her sister to undress and get in the water. Robbie drafts a note to Cecilia to apologise for the incident. In one draft, designed only as a private joke, he confesses his sexual attraction to her in explicit terms: "In my dreams I kiss your cunt, your sweet wet cunt." He then writes a more formal letter and gives it to Briony to deliver. Only afterwards does he realise he has given her the wrong letter. Briony reads the letter before giving it to Cecilia. Later, she describes it to her 15-year-old visiting cousin, Lola, who calls Robbie a "sex maniac". Paul Marshall, a visiting friend of Briony's older brother, introduces himself to the visiting cousins and appears to be attracted to Lola. Before dinner, Robbie apologises to Cecilia for the obscene letter but, to his surprise, she confesses her secret love for him. They proceed to make passionate love in the library. Briony walks in on them and thinks that Robbie is raping Cecilia. At dinner, Lola's twin brothers go missing and a search is organised. Outside in the dark, Briony sees Lola apparently being raped by a man, who flees upon being discovered. The two girls talk, and Briony becomes convinced that it was Robbie again. A confused Lola does not dissent. On the basis of Lola and Briony's testimony, and the explicit letter Robbie wrote to Cecilia, he is arrested for the rape. Four years later, during the Second World War, Robbie has been released from prison on the condition that he joins the army and fights in the Battle of France. Separated from his unit, he makes his way on foot to Dunkirk. He thinks back to six months earlier when he met Cecilia, now a nurse. Briony, now 18, has chosen to join Cecilia's old nursing unit at St Thomas' Hospital in London rather than go to the University of Cambridge. She writes to her sister, but Cecilia has not forgiven her for lying in the investigation years before. Robbie, who is falling gravely ill from an infected wound, finally arrives at the beaches of Dunkirk, where he waits to be evacuated. Later, Briony, who now regrets implicating Robbie, learns from a newsreel that Paul Marshall, who now owns a factory supplying rations to the British army, is about to be married to Lola. Briony goes to the ceremony and, as the priest asks if anyone objects to the union, she realises that it was Paul who assaulted Lola. Briony goes to visit Cecilia to apologise directly, and suggests correcting her testimony to which Cecilia says she would be an "unreliable witness". Briony is surprised to find Robbie there living with her sister, while in London on leave. Briony apologises for her deceit, but Robbie is enraged that she has still not accepted responsibility for her actions. Cecilia calms him down and then Robbie instructs Briony how to correct the record and get Robbie's conviction overturned. Briony agrees. Cecilia adds that Briony include what she remembers of Danny Hardman, but Briony points out that Paul Marshall was the rapist and has just married Lola. Cecilia notes that now Lola will not be able to testify against her husband. Decades later, Briony is an elderly and successful novelist, giving an interview about her latest book, an autobiographical novel titled Atonement. She confesses that the scene in the book describing her visit and apology to Cecilia and Robbie was entirely imaginary. Cecilia and Robbie were never reunited: Robbie died of septicaemia at Dunkirk on the morning of the day he was to be evacuated and Cecilia died months later in the Balham tube station bombing during the Blitz. Briony hopes to give the two, in fiction, the happiness that she robbed them of in real life. The last scene shows an imagined, happily reunited Cecilia and Robbie staying in the house by the sea which they had intended to visit once they were reunited. 

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Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson are discussing a church parade in the Vicar's office when they are interrupted by the Verger, accompanied by an official from Pickfords, complaining that a large gun has been left in the yard. It is revealed to be a 13 pounder naval gun. The platoon call in Frazer, who was in the navy, to tell them how it works, but Frazer reveals that he was only a cook. The man from Pickfords returns with the manual however, and Mainwaring begins to read it. The platoon are each assigned different positions, with amusing consequences. However, when they attempt to rehearse the drill, they cannot open the breech until the verger reveals that they had the safety catch on, to the indignation of the platoon. The next day, the platoon organise a TEWT (Tactical Exercise Without Troops) and make a miniature version of Walmington to test their new battle strategy, using, among other things, a powder puff, a scrubbing brush and a bottle of whisky. Mainwaring orders the destruction of the cricket score-board (much to Wilson's annoyance), the allotments (to Frazer's disapproval) and the bandstand (to the dismay of Lance Corporal Jones, who reveals that he was present when it was erected and dedicated to Queen Victoria) within 48 hours. He tells Wilson he is meeting with the Town Clerk to confirm it. However, Mr Rees, the Town Clerk, is less than pleased, and asks for a demonstration. On the day of the demonstration, Mainwaring gives the command "enemy tank right! Action!", and the platoon jump to it. However, the gun is covered by camouflage netting. This proves to be the downfall of the platoon, as they all become entangled in the netting whilst attempting to remove it. Mr Rees has had enough at this point, and promises to tell his committee that "they can sleep sound in their beds, provided they make them inside that enemy tank". 

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Five extraterrestrials from the fictitious planet Zigma B, Candy H. Caramella, Etno Polino, Stereo Monovici, Bud Budiovitch and Klatoo go on a picnic together in space. However, their spaceship crashes into an asteroid, and they fall to planet Earth. They realize that if any human finds out that they are aliens, they could be captured and experimented on by scientists, so they take shelter in the attic of a house that is up for rent. The aliens have two goals: return to their home planet, and chase away anybody who tries to establish themselves in the house. To remain unknown from humans, the aliens use a device called the SMTV that lets them transform into almost any entity of their choosing, but always cycles through three other transformations when used. 

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In this version of Charlotte Brontë's great novel, Jane Eyre (Sorcha Cusack) is an independent and strong-minded young woman who is hired by Mr. Rochester (Michael Jayston) to work as a governess. What she does not realize is that she must share the estate (and ultimately Mr. Rochester) with his wife, Bertha (Brenda Kempner), who is, by this point in her life, mentally ill and kept locked away in an upstairs attic. For a full length summary see: Jane Eyre plot summary. 

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Rebel Planet is a science fiction adventure set in the year 2453. In this fictional representation of the future, human colonisation of the galaxy began in 2070 with the settlement of Tropos a few light-years from Earth. Earth and her colonies were conquered by an alien race known as the Arcadians in a twelve-year war around 2300. Humans have become slaves, and are kept alive only to serve their alien masters. However, a human organization known as SAROS ("Search And Research Of Space") has discovered that the Arcadians rely on a powerful super-computer to keep themselves networked together. Without this computer, they are merely zombies, incapable of acting on their own. SAROS has limited resources, but a secret plot is hatched to infiltrate Arcadion and destroy the queen computer. The reader plays the role of the last hope of humanity, an undercover agent posing as a space merchant. 

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878 – 881: Uhtred of Bebbanburg makes his way back to his native Northumbria seeking revenge against his uncle Ælfric and childhood enemies Sven the One-Eyed and Kjartan the Cruel. He travels by ship with his lover and former nun, Hild. They make landfall near Eoferwic (York) to find the region in chaos. Ivarr Ivarsson, the most powerful Danish lord in Northumbria, has led his army against the Scots in the north. The formerly Danish-held Eoferwic has been conquered by Saxons, who, under the fanatical Father Hrothweard, have begun a massacre of Danes. The central lands of Dunholm are ravaged by Kjartan and Sven, and Bebbanburg remains under the control of Ælfric. Uhtred is hired to escort a Danish merchant's family north, through Dunholm. Their path leads to a slave trading station belonging to Sven. In order to avoid being recognised, Uhtred hides his face and calls himself Thorkild the Leper, Dark Swordsman of Niflheim. When the situation spirals out of control, he convinces Sven he was returned from the dead to haunt him and his father. He frees the Dane Guthred of Cumbraland from the slave pens; the amiable Guthred claims to be the king of Northumbria. In Cumbraland, Guthred converts to Christianity and is hailed as king of Northumbria by the Saxon Abbot Eadred, who believes Guthred has been anointed by Saint Cuthbert and claims to have dreamed of Guthred, though he initially mistakes Uhtred for him. Uhtred becomes the commander of Guthred's household troops, as well as his closest advisor. He trains a band of thirty new warriors and foils an attempt by Kjartan's infiltrators to capture him and Guthred. Uhtred is smitten with Guthred's sister, Gisela. He marches east with Guthred. With Ivarr Ivarsson away fighting the Scots, they capture Eoferwic easily. There Father Hrothweard joins them. As they march north to Dunholm, Guthred betrays Uhtred. He makes a deal with Uhtred's treacherous uncle, Ælfric, for his support against Kjartan. In return, Ælfric wants Uhtred dead, but Guthred gets him to accept something less. He pays Danish trader Sverri to take the unsuspecting Uhtred as a slave. For two years, Uhtred is a rower on Sverri's trading ship. During that time, he befriends a fellow slave, Finan the Agile, an Irish warrior. Then a mysterious red Danish longship pursues their ship. During a trading venture to England, Uhtred is confronted by Sven, who recognises him, but is scared away when the red ship appears, and warriors debark and attack. Uhtred is overjoyed to be reunited with his foster brother and close friend, Ragnar. Uhtred returns to Wessex to learn that Hild convinced Alfred to send Ragnar (and Steapa) to his rescue, promising to use Uhtred's hoard of silver to build an abbey and recommit herself to Christ. Upon meeting with a Mercian traveling entertainer and spy, Offa, Uhtred learns that Guthred, Ivarr and Ælfric besieged Kjartan at Dunholm, but failed. Alfred despatches Father Beocca as his ambassador to Guthred, supposedly to make peace in Northumbria, but also sends along Uhtred, Steappa and Ragnar, which convinces Uhtred that Alfred has other intentions. They arrive in Guthred's court to find that Gisela was married to Ælfric by proxy in return for support in another attack against Kjartan, and that Ivarr has abandoned Guthred and is raising an army to fight him. Uhtred is certain his uncle will send no men to support Guthred. He fends off Ælfric's men and kills Brother Jænberht when he insists that Gisela is still married to Ælfric. Intimidated, Brother Ida agrees that Gisela is not married, as the marriage has not been consummated. Uhtred then forgives Guthred for betraying him into slavery and declares his intention to marry Gisela. Despite the calls of many churchmen to instead execute Uhtred for the killing of Jænberht, Guthred agrees to the marriage. Uhtred takes command of Guthred's troops for the attack on Dunholm. His plan is to once again become a sceadugengan, a shadow- walker. In the darkness, he and eleven of his best men climb the hill and sneak into the fort through a gate used to fetch well water. Although they are discovered, they are assisted by Ragnar's sister Thyra, who has been held by Sven and Kjartan since the events of The Last Kingdom. Thyra turns Kjartan's own hounds against their masters, allowing Uhtred and his men to open the gate for Ragnar and Guthred's army to enter the stronghold and beat Kjartan's men. Sven is defeated by Finan and then savaged to death by the hounds at Thyra's behest. Kjartan himself is killed in single combat by Ragnar, who refuses to allow him to die with a sword in his hand, thus denying him entry into Valhalla. After the battle, Guthred transfers control of Dunholm to Ragnar. Guthred's army meets Ivarr's stronger force in the field. Uhtred provokes Ivarr into single combat and defeats him. 

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In this book, Lone Wolf is charged by the King of Sommerlund to investigate the disappearance of a troop of cavalry. The cavalry, led by a man named Captain D'Val, themselves disappeared under mysterious circumstances while investigating a disruption in the flow of mined resources from the province of Ruanon. Lone Wolf, along with the fifty Sommlending soldiers who accompany him, must uncover the truth surrounding the missing men and stop the resurrection of an ancient and terrible evil. 

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The platoon are parading out in the yard. Mainwaring is appalled by the lack of attention taken in their appearance: Walker has his pockets stuffed with sugar and sultanas and Godfrey is wearing his cap like George Formby, a slipper and carrying a walking stick. Mainwaring mentions that he received a message from his CO the other day: he came through and didn't receive a single salute, and Jones had his hands plunged into his trouser pockets. Jones admits that it was because he forgot his braces, and didn't want to cause any embarrassment. Mainwaring decides to dedicate the rest of the parade to practising saluting. However, the Vicar disrupts the practice, and informs Mainwaring of some illicit graffiti on the back of his spare harmonium. Mainwaring's men sleep in the tower room when on fire watch, so they are the prime suspects. Mainwaring instantly denies this, so he and Wilson decide to go up to the tower room to see for themselves. When Mainwaring and the Vicar reach the top, Mainwaring decides to bring up Jones' section to compare the handwriting. Wilson has only just reached the top before he is asked to go down again and bring up Jones' section. Leaving Wilson at the bottom of the stairs, each man writes the same word next to the graffiti, much to the Vicar's annoyance. Suddenly, Jones notices something: the Verger passes the window - hanging on the cable of a barrage balloon. They all rush downstairs, just as Wilson reaches the top. They manage to get the Verger and the balloon down safely, but they are left hanging onto the ropes for dear life. ARP Warden Hodges arrives and tries to take charge of the situation. He and Mainwaring phone the RAF, but they won't be available until nightfall, leaving the platoon with a dilemma. It is Walker who suggests taking the balloon to Pinner Woods and tying it to a tree. Jones decides to take his van to prevent it being carried away by the wind. They find a fallen tree just outside the woods. Unfortunately, Jones and the platoon release their ropes too soon, and the balloon floats away, taking Mainwaring with it. The platoon, the Vicar and the Verger follow it in the van, while Hodges borrows a tricycle from Mr Blewitt, and a tandem from a young couple. Mainwaring gets entangled in topiaries, haystacks and washing lines before the balloon finally comes to rest on a railway bridge. Walker notices a train coming, so they quickly drag Mainwaring and the balloon off the bridge, and Mainwaring collapses as the platoon secure the balloon. Unfortunately, when an RAF Squadron Leader turns up, Jones orders the platoon to salute, therefore releasing the balloon, and starting the chase all over again. 

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Once more, the reader (Lone Wolf) must set out on a mission bestowed upon him by the king. This time, the mission is a diplomatic one, in which a crucial peace treaty must be signed in the far away desert empire of Vassagonia. But as always, things are more complex than they seem, and peace is elusive. Lone Wolf walks into a trap from which he barely escapes, and he must fight the prime Darklord (Haakon) to regain a secret Kai artefact which will determine the fate of the Kai Order. This artifact is called the 'Book of the Magnakai'. 

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In the spring of 1811, the Peninsular War appears to have been won--by the French. Cádiz is the only major Spanish town still holding out. From their overwintering strongholds in Portugal, the British sally forth to the River Guadiana with a small force seeking to destroy a key bridge across the river. The mission is commanded by the young Brigadier General Moon, a man with no love for Sharpe. Sharpe and the men with him encounter French Colonel Henri Vandal, commander of the 8th Regiment of the Line. Sharpe succeeds in blowing up the bridge, but is seriously wounded in the head. His men manage to get him to Cádiz, which is besieged by a French army led by Marshal Victor. In Cadiz, British ambassador Henry Wellesley, younger brother to the Duke of Wellington, seeks Sharpe's help. Wellesley has fallen in love with a beautiful woman named Caterina Blazquez. Unfortunately, she turns out to be a whore, and her pimp tries to blackmail Wellesley using Wellesley's love letters. Worse, virulently anti- British Catholic priest Father Salvador Montseny learns of this and murders the pimp to obtain the letters. British spymaster Lord Pumphrey assures Wellesley he can pay for the letters and that will be the end of the affair, but Sharpe believes otherwise. Sharpe is proved correct, but eventually manages to steal the letters (and make the acquaintance of Blazquez) with the assistance of Patrick Harper and his trusted riflemen. Then a joint Spanish- British army is transported by boat south of the city to attack Victor's forces from the rear and lift the siege. Because the Spanish provide more troops, timid Spanish General Lapena is given command, rather than British General Thomas Graham. Lapena squanders opportunity after opportunity, leading his men toward disaster and Victor's trap. Fortunately, Graham and the British, fighting desperately while the Spanish do nothing, defeat the French in the Battle of Barrosa. In the battle, Sharpe captures Colonel Vandal. 

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In order to fulfill his pledge to restore the Kai, Lone Wolf must first himself become a Kai Grand Master. To accomplish this monumental task, he must retrieve the Lore Stones led only by the wisdom of Sun Eagle, the First Kai Grandmaster. As the last of the Kai, there is little to guide Lone Wolf in his studies, except for a faded inscription in the Book of the Magnakai directing him to seek the Lorestone of Varetta. And so, Lone Wolf sets off for Varetta in the Stornlands, far to the south of Sommerlund, to find this ancient relic and revive the glory of the Kai. 

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In his quest to attain Kai Grand Master status, Lone Wolf must seek out and find 7 Lorestones. After obtaining the Lorestone of Varetta in the previous book and absorbing its wisdom and power, the location of the next Lorestone is revealed as the remote township of Herdos. Here, Lone Wolf is directed by friendly Elder Magi to search within the accursed fortress of Kazan-Oud, otherwise known as "Castle Death". 

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After surviving the perils of Castle Death and being tutored by the Elder Magi, Lone Wolf and the reader now seek out the third Lorestone. The location of this Lorestone is thought to be hidden in a temple deep within a jungle-swamp known as the Danarg. Over the years, this fetid swamp has become the home for any number of evil creatures who seek to protect the jungle and its treasures. To make matters worse, news is delivered that the Darklords have united behind a new leader, and may soon again bring war to Magnamund, increasing Lone Wolf's sense of urgency. 

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As Lone Wolf races against time to recover the remaining Lorestones, he learns that the next one resides deep underground, beneath the streets of the city of Tahou. Unfortunately, the war against the Darklords has not been going at all well for the freeland nations, and Tahou is now in danger of falling before Lone Wolf even reaches it. If it falls to the Darklords and their Vassagonian allies before the Lorestone is recovered, the hopes of Lone Wolf completing the Magnakai quest will be thwarted forever. 

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After discovering that the three remaining Lorestones have fallen into the hands of the Darklords, Lone Wolf and his allies must formulate a daring plan to recover them. It is rumored that the stones are being kept in the grim Drakkarim fortress-city of Torgar, where the darklords' evil sorcerers (the Nadziranim) are searching for the means to destroy them. Once more, Lone Wolf must make haste in an attempt to recover the Lorestones before the Nadziranim can bring about their destruction. The adventure ends with an exciting twist, which threatens to banish Lone Wolf from Magnamund for all time. 

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Pike is cleaning Mainwaring's bank office and singing love songs when Mainwaring interrupts him. He changes the subject by telling him how much he is looking forward to the Home Guard dance Mainwaring is organising. When Pike leaves, Mainwaring confides in Wilson that he is not satisfied with Pike's work as of late, and that Pike seems to be constantly distracted. Wilson then mentions that Pike is probably dwelling on the ATS girl he is seeing, a girl by the name of Violet Gibbons. Mainwaring is shocked, as he knew Violet's mother (who used to do housecleaning for him and Mrs. Mainwaring), and when Wilson confirms that she used to work at "a fish and chip shop", he disapprovingly tells Wilson that a girl with "the wrong sort of background" could ruin Pike's whole career at the bank. He asks Wilson to have a word with him, as he is the closest thing to a father Pike has. Wilson tries to wriggle out of it, but Mainwaring goads him by calling him a Peter Pan and reminding him that tongues have been wagging about Frank's parentage (as both Wilson and Mrs. Pike "arrived here about the same time...both from Weston-super-Mare"). Wilson is frustrated but agrees to talk to Pike. Later, Mainwaring and Jones' section hold a meeting to discuss the final arrangements for the dance. They are in a quandary over music; Jones suggests the Salvation Army, but Walker disagrees, and mentions to Mainwaring that Private Hastings can play the piano, and he will have a word with a band at an RAF unit in Gaulshead. Mainwaring agrees, and announces that his wife will provide sausage rolls. When preparations are in progress, Wilson continues trying to avoid his intended conversation with Pike, but after being called "Peter Pan" once more by Mainwaring (prompting an exasperated Wilson to reply "My God, Mainwaring, you can hit pretty low when it suits you!"), he finally goes to speak with Pike in the vicar's office. Meanwhile, Jones suggests doing a cabaret act, consisting of his own "humorous monologues and various forms of mimicry", along with a Highland sword dance to be performed by Frazer. Mainwairing says he will mention Jones' idea to the dance committee; shortly afterwards, Frazer enters and tells Jones that he's "gone right off the idea", before limping away with the aid of a cane (with the implication being that he has injured himself while practising the sword dance). During the conversation with Pike, Wilson awkwardly tries to present himself as a father figure by suggesting they address each other by their first names, and eventually he gets around to the subject of Pike's taking Violet to the dance, and tries to gently dissuade him from doing so. Pike then drops the bombshell that he intends to announce their engagement in the middle of the dance, like Jack Oakie and ZaSu Pitts. Wilson's pleas for him to reconsider fall on deaf ears, as do Walker's (who tells Wilson that he used to date Violet previously, but broke it off with her after she started working at the fish and chip shop, as he couldn't take the lingering smell of fish that she gave off even when they were out on dates). The initial phase of the dance goes well, apart from a confrontation with Jones and the Verger about the rude word on the harmonium (see The Day the Balloon Went Up). Walker arrives with two twins, Doris and Dora, Godfrey brings along his sister, Cissy, and Frazer brings his niece, Blodwen (Sally Douglas), who is a Land Girl. Mainwaring turns up with a black eye, and confesses to Jones that the sausage rolls are ruined and Elizabeth won't be coming. At last Jones' partner, Mrs Prosser, arrives and the dance can begin. However, it isn't long before things turn pear-shaped and Pike arrives with Violet. Just as the band take a break, Pike attempts to make his announcement, but Walker manages to prevent it by persuading Jones to do his cabaret act. Jones proceeds to do impressions of actors such as Arthur Askey and George Arliss. At the end of Jones' act, Walker desperately tries to persuade him to impersonate some more actors like Charles Laughton and Freddie Bartholomew; but unfortunately Mr. Pike manages to make his way to the microphone, drags a disinterested-looking Violet onto the stage, and announces their engagement. His mother responds to this news by screaming and then fainting. Later, a drunken Mainwaring stumbles into the vicar's office where Wilson is attempting to sleep, as the both of them have been locked out of their houses (by Elizabeth and Mrs Pike respectively). Pike also comes in, wrapped in a blanket and soaked to the skin. He tells the other two men that not only was he also locked out, but that his mum threw a bucket of water over him as well ("to cool that ardour", as Wilson puts it). Then, Mr. Pike announces that he will not get married after all, much to Wilson's relief. The men then discuss the end of the dance (which had degenerated into a rowdy drunken brawl at the end), agreeing that overall it was still a "good dance". 

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Although Lone Wolf is successful in rescuing one of the captive Lorestones from Torgar, both he and the remaining two Lorestones are blasted through a dimensional portal (Shadow Gate) by Darklord Gnaag. After plummeting through the Shadow Gate, Lone Wolf finds himself trapped on the Daziarn Plane and must join strange allies and face old enemies if he hopes to make his way back from the Daziarn in time to save his homeland from destruction at the hands of the Darklords and their powerful new armies. 

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After his struggles in the plane of Daziarn, Lone Wolf finally recovers the last of the Lorestones and finds a Shadow Gate back to his home. Unfortunately, upon his return, he finds that considerable time has passed and that, in his absence, the Darklords have conquered much of Magnamund. Now with all of the Lorestones' wisdom absorbed within him, and the hopes of Sommerlund and all the free peoples of Magnamund on his shoulders, Lone Wolf must travel to the very heart of the Darklords' foul realm, to the infernal city of Helgedad, and confront Archlord Gnaag himself. The adventure culminates with a spectacular battle in Helgedad and the destruction of the Darklords' principal city. 

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Living peacefully on a faraway planet, the LocoRoco and their friends, the Mui Mui, help grow vegetation and look after nature, making the planet a pleasant place to be, playing and singing the days away. When the Moja Troop comes to the planet to take it over, the LocoRoco do not know how to fight against these invaders from outer space. As such, the player assumes the role of "the planet" that is capable of guiding the LocoRoco around to defeat the Moja Troop and rescue the remaining LocoRoco, returning the planet to its peaceful ways. 

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After cynical New York advertising copywriter Roger Swanson (Campbell Scott) is dumped by his on- again/off-again girlfriend, Joyce (Isabella Rossellini) — who is also his boss — his painful workday is further complicated by the unexpected arrival of his 16-year-old nephew, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg). After asking to spend the night at Roger's, Nick reveals that he has come to ask for help—in hopes of ditching his virginal status, Nick begs Roger for a lesson in the art of seduction. Embittered Roger then takes on the role of a nocturnal drill sergeant in an imaginary war between the sexes, starting Nick's training at an upscale singles bar. There they meet two beautiful women (Elizabeth Berkley and Jennifer Beals) who turn out to be less malleable than Roger expects. Although this first attempt to seduce women is unsuccessful, Nick chooses to continue the quest, which takes them to a party at Joyce's. There they find Joyce's secretary drunk and attempt to capitalize. Once in the bedroom Nick's conscience gets the better of him and he allows her to fall asleep untouched. With Roger spinning out of control and Nick's window of opportunity closing rapidly, they agree to go with the "Fail Safe" plan. This turns out to be an underground brothel. At the underground location Roger finds he cannot let Nick lose his virginity in such an emotionally barren atmosphere, and drags him back to his apartment to sleep things off. The following day, Roger hears his sister's message from his answering machine saying that no one has seen her son Nick for two days, so Roger tells Nick to call Nick's mom. Nick travels back to Ohio, but a while later, Roger shows up unexpectedly to tutor Nick and his classmates on their home turf, bonding with the younger men in a more potent way in an atmosphere populated by adolescent peers. At the closing, it is left open which way Nick will go. 

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After the events of the previous series of books, Lone Wolf has taken up training new Kai recruits, and under his tutelage, the Kai have been re-founded. Even though peace reigns for the moment, chaos is once again poised to unfold, as a group of Cenerese druids plot to unleash a massive plague upon all of Magnamund. Lone Wolf and the reader must find the source of this plague and destroy it before it can be released. 

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Three months after the events of The Plague Lords of Ruel, Lone Wolf learns that his friend, Guildmaster Banedon, has been abducted by a band of Giaks under the command of Nadziranim sorcerers. It is theorized that they are planning to torture him to extract magical techniques which can be united with their own dark sorcery. Lone Wolf and the reader must venture to Kaag, where Banedon is held, and attempt a rescue before he meets his demise, or worse, yields the coveted magical secrets of left-handed magic. 

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Once more, Lone Wolf's help is sought by a monarch, this time King Sarnac of Lencia. While battling the Drakkarim under control of Magnaarn, the High Warlord of Darke, the Lencians have discovered that Magnaarn seeks an ancient artifact, the Doomstone of Darke. It is feared that he is close to discovering this artifact, and with it, the power to rally the Nadziranim sorcerers and other Darklord allies against Lencia. Lone Wolf and the reader take up the cause of Lencia to thwart Magnaarn's aims. 

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The opening panels of the story are set in the Duckburg museum, where Scrooge McDuck is opening a museum exhibit featuring the greatest wonders he has collected during his travels around the world (most of them direct tributes to classic Barks stories). As Scrooge is bragging to his nephews (who are all familiar with the artifacts, having taken part in the expeditions for them), Flintheart Glomgold, who is about to open his own exhibit, overhears Scrooge and the conversation between the two rivals turns into a bragging match as to who is the greatest adventurer and treasure-seeker. Scrooge challenges Glomgold to think of something he couldn't find; Glomgold is momentarily nonplussed, then catches sight of Scrooge's exhibit of Inca artifacts and points out that while Scrooge found the original gold mines of the Incas, he never found the golden artifacts that had been extracted from the mines. Soon, Scrooge and his nephews are off on a race with Glomgold to see who can find, and claim the "greater Incan treasure". The first clue comes as soon as Glomgold has left, as Donald picks up an Incan vase that was knocked over during the bragging match. They find a metal plaque baked inside, providing a map to a temple of Manco Capac in the Andes mountains. Unfortunately, Glomgold is eavesdropping on them. Arriving at a village near Cuzco, Scrooge hires a plane to fly them to its location. The pilot of the plane turns out to be Glomgold, who relieves them of the plaque at gunpoint and then parachutes out. Scrooge tries to regain control of the plane and, in a comic episode, inadvertently rips out the belly of the plane while flying too low, dumping his nephews onto the valley floor, still in their seats. As the plane flies off, Glomgold approaches and informs the ducks that Scrooge has frightened away the porters he hired, so they will have to do. A week later, Glomgold and his reluctant helpers reach a remote mountain, on the summit of which is the temple built around a large volcanic fumarole (hence, the plaque's description, the "life breath" of Manco Capac). Glomgold enters the temple's treasure chamber and is beside himself with glee to discover an enormous store of golden Inca artifacts. Then Scrooge appears, calmly informing Glomgold that he crash- landed the plane on the mountain top several days ago, and has already filed his claim on the gold using the plane's radio. It seems that Scrooge has won, but Huey, Dewey, and Louie are confused about one thing: the plaque makes reference to an Incan "treasure" being moved to the temple, but it actually predates the time of the conquistadors, which is naturally when the gold would have been moved there. Realizing there must be another Incan treasure in the temple, Glomgold investigates further and discovers the "Eye" of Manco Capac: an enormous, disc-shaped sunburst festooned with enormous gemstones. Since Scrooge claimed the gold, and not the temple, and there's no gold on the sunburst, this makes it Glomgold's property. As Scrooge and Glomgold begin to argue about whose treasure is of greater value, Glomgold begins taking the sunburst down from its wall mounting, but it falls and rolls down the temple steps and into the fumarole. It wedges into the hole convex side down, creating a perfect seal. As the volcanic gases build up an enormous pressure, Scrooge notices that the back of the sunburst is sheathed in gold, starting another furious argument between him and Glomgold, before causing them to wedge the sunburst down even more firmly. Before the others can stop them, the pressure mounts and the entire mountaintop, temple and all, is suddenly blown into the sky like a cork from a bottle. The ducks are able to use a tapestry as a makeshift parachute before the temple lands squarely in a nearly bottomless volcanic lake, next to the village they originally started from. The massive splash of water irrigates the villagers’ crop fields, relieving them from the effects of recent drought. All of the treasure is now completely irretrievable. As the dispirited ducks begin their journey back to civilization, Scrooge is seen emerging from the village and mentions that he has agreed to build a pumping station for the village so that they will never be troubled by drought again. Glomgold scorns Scrooge's generosity, until Scrooge reveals that in return, the villagers have agreed to sell him the lake for one peso—which makes Scrooge the rightful owner of both the temple and all of the treasure inside it. Even though he cannot retrieve it, Scrooge is now the clear legal owner of all of the treasure—and thus the winner of the contest. 

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The plot concerns a group of international scientists working for the project of towing an iceberg to be used as relief for droughts. It is headed up by the husband and wife team of Rita and Harold (Harry) Carpenter. Rita secretly suffers from the fear of cold, ice and snow. Due to an unexpected storm, the scientists become stranded on the iceberg with bombs ticking under them. If they do not find a way out, they will perish. A Russian submarine is trying to rescue them, but the rescue is complicated by the ice. Meanwhile, another problem arises. One of the crew members is secretly an assassin with an agenda of his own. 

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In this book you (in the guise of the heroic Lone Wolf) again travel to the Plane of Darkness. Your quest involves rescuing an artifact crafted by the Lords of Light - the Moonstone - from the Dark God's clutches. The Plane of Darkness is a predictably nasty place, and even a being as powerful as a Kai Grand Master may shrink from the challenge. Dare you face up to the Dark God Naar himself? 

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Lt. David Bradley (Tom Hanks) is an American pilot who joins the Royal Air Force (RAF) before the United States enters World War II. After his Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber is shot down in North Africa, he recovers from a leg injury in Jerusalem. During his recovery, David meets Sarah Perrara (Cristina Marsillach), a serene girl of Spanish Jewish descent. The two young people are attracted to each other but she is convinced that their diverse backgrounds mean it could never work. Her family's disapproval and the fact that he is a gentile son of a Protestant minister, stand in their way. Although they keep running into each other in the small community, they find themselves parting as frequently as they find each other. 

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Following a disappointment in love, Lord Brereton assumes the name of Charles Fownes, arranges passage to the American Colonies as a bondservant, and finds a place with Squire Meredith, a wealthy New Jersey landowner. When Charles falls in love with the squire's daughter, Janice, she is sent to live with an aunt in Boston. Janice learns of the planned British troop movement to the Lexington arsenal and gives the warning that results in Paul Revere's ride. Charles reveals his true station and becomes an aide to Washington. When he is captured by the British, Janice arranges his escape and later helps him learn the disposition of the British troops at Trenton. Janice returns to her home and agrees to marry Philemon Hennion, an aristocrat of her father's choosing. Charles and some Continental troops halt the wedding and confiscate the Meredith lands. Janice flees to Philadelphia, and Charles follows her. He is arrested but is freed when the British general, Howe, recognizes Charles as his old friend, Lord Brereton. Janice and her father retire with the British to Yorktown. During the bombardment by Washington's forces, Lord Clowes binds Janice and abducts her in his coach. Charles rescues her. With peace restored, Janice and Charles meet at Mount Vernon, where they are to be married in the presence of President Washington. 

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In 1755, the father of 12-year-old Matt Howard (Dickie Jones) joins the Braddock Expedition against the French in the Ohio Country after being promised of land. Matt learns that his father died during the military expedition, and is consoled by his schoolmate and friend Thomas Jefferson (Buster Phelps). Matt (Cary Grant), now an adult and accomplished backwoodsman, sells the family farm in order to settle in Ohio. When saying farewell to Jefferson (played as an adult by Richard Carlson), Matt is tricked into meeting several members of high society, including the snobbish, wealthy royalist Fleetwood Peyton (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and his beautiful sister, Jane (Martha Scott). The Peytons snub him when they discover he's a common farmer and not a landed gentlemen (as Jefferson had implied). Matt falls in love with Jane. Fleetwood, certain Jane will turn Matt down, permits Howard to propose to her in order to humiliate the farmer. Matt buys a farm in the Shenandoah Valley and erects a home there. When Matt returns, Jane (thrilled by Matt's republicanism and colonial spirit) shocks her family by accepting his proposal of marriage. Fleetwood repairs his relationship with Jane by giving her the diamond-encrusted Peyton family necklace. Matt and Jane take up residence at Matt's new farm. Jane is shocked at the crude manners of the settlers, but Matt's vision of the future overcomes her worries. Jane and Matt work together, and the Howard's Albemarle Plantation takes shape. Their first child, Peyton, is born with a clubfoot (like his namesake uncle). Matt is ashamed of Peyton's disability. Jane has a daughter, Mary, and a second son, James. Despie her frontier spirit, Jane remains something of a snob. Jefferson visits Albemarle and shows Matt how unhappy Jane is living on the frontier. In order to justify returning to Williamsburg for several months without sacrificing his pride, Matt agrees to run for the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1765. He easily wins the election. Matt feuds with Fleetwood in the legislature, and is exposed to anti-British feeling and thought for the first time. Revolutionary fervor strikes the American colonies, and Matt spends more and more time away from Albemarle to join Jefferson in Williamsburg in resisting the British crown. Fearing Indian attack, Jane moves from Albemarle to Williamsburg to be near Matt. When Matt decides to go to Philadelphia to fight for independence, Jane demands that he stay in Virginia and confronts Matt regarding his rejection of Peyton. Matt leaves, causing a rupture in his marriage. Jane and her children move in with Fleetwood. The American Revolutionary War breaks out, and Matt becomes a captain in the Continental Army. Unable to pay his taxes with credit, Fleetwood is forced to sell much of his land. He turns to drink, and throws Peyton and James out of his house when they support their father and Jefferson. Peyton and James find their father near-starvation in winter camp, and join the army. Fleetwood embraces the royalist cause. His health declines and he becomes mentally ill. Matt discovers that James' allegiance to the revolutionary cause is weak, and realizes how much he has neglected Peyton. James wins leave and goes home to Williamsburg. Peyton remains with his father and the army. While acting as a courier for the army, Peyton is wounded. Matt and the Continental Army march to Williamsburg in order to surround Cornwallis at Yorktown. Matt learns Peyton was taken to Fleetwood's home to recuperate. He rushes to his son's side, reunites with his family, and reconciles with Jane after confessing how he mistreated Peyton. 

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Maxwell Broadbent, an eccentric rich man with terminal cancer, has spent his entire life collecting valuable art and treasures from around the world. One day, he writes a letter to his three sons telling them to go to his New Mexico house. Upon their arrival, they find Maxwell and all of the valuables missing, with only a cryptic message left behind hinting at his location. The message explains that his final test for them is to find his tomb, promising that the son that finds his tomb will receive all his treasures—worth approximately $300 million. The three sons—Philip the eldest, Vernon the middle son, and Tom the youngest—each go their separate ways after figuring out that their father is somewhere in Central America. Philip recruits Marcus Hauser, a private investigator who briefly served as his father's partner in their earliest treasure hunting endeavors, and Hauser subsequently hires a group of Central American mercenaries to aid and protect them. Vernon approaches the greedy leader of his San Francisco-based cult, and the two of them find three Central American guides. Tom is the only one who is not interested in the treasure at all, until he is approached by a beautiful ethnopharmacologist named Sally Colorado, who informs Tom that his father tried to present an ancient Mayan Codex to a museum for translation years back, only to be rejected since no one knew ancient Mayan at the time. Years later, after ancient Mayan has been deciphered, Sally and her fiancé, Yale professor Julian Clyve, have deduced from a single surviving photograph that the Codex may contain many ancient Mayan herbal remedies that, if studied and reproduced in present times, could revolutionize medicine and cure many diseases. Tom reluctantly agrees to help her, and they eventually recruit a witty tribal elder named Don Alfonso, accompanied by the brother trackers Pingo and Chori. However, Hauser has also discovered the existence of the Codex, and decides to find it specifically so that he can sell it to Lewis Skiba, the CEO of the failing company Lampe- Denison Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Professor Clyve also plans to sell the Codex to a Swiss pharmaceutical company as well, having lied to his fiancé. Over the course of the novel, the brothers' paths eventually cross nearly simultaneously in Honduras, after Vernon's teacher and three guides have all died from disease. Philip escapes from Hauser and his men after discovering their secret brutal nature (including an attempt, through bribery, to have the corrupt military kill Tom and Sally), and is found by his brothers nearly dead. Later, Hauser's men kill Pingo and Chori, and Don Alfonso himself succumbs to wounds sustained in a firefight. The three brothers and Sally are all nearly dead when they are rescued and nursed back to health by a lonely native named Borabay, who is revealed to be the true eldest son of Maxwell Broadbent, and the fourth brother, having been conceived when Maxwell had an affair with a native woman. Borabay leads them to a village inhabited by the Tara tribe. The Tara chief recalls how, decades earlier, Maxwell Broadbent had raided a large, mountaintop temple known as the White City (accessible only by a single rope bridge), and taking all of the treasure back to America with him. The chief reveals that after Maxwell returned to Honduras with the treasure, he requested to be buried with his treasure in the very White City that he raided. However, at his early funeral, the chief tricked him; instead of giving him poison to kill him, he gave him a drink that rendered him unconscious long enough for the treasure to be buried with him, before he eventually awoke inside the tomb. Thus, the Broadbents now have to recover the treasure and save their father. Hauser and his men have already converged on the White City and begin dynamiting the area to find the right tomb. The Broadbents manage to find the right tomb, with a barely-alive Maxwell still inside. Hauser attacks them and fatally shoots Maxwell, but the five of them manage to escape to the rope bridge before being blocked in on both sides by Hauser's men. As Hauser himself approaches to kill them, Tom holds up a canteen full of gasoline and reveals that Sally is on a ridge hundreds of yards away with a sniper rifle, prepared to shoot the canteen and blow up the bridge. Hauser calls their bluff, but when he attempts to throw the canteen over the bridge, Sally successfully shoots it, setting Hauser on fire and eventually causing him to plummet to his death. The Broadbents all make it back across the bridge while the soldiers panic, with Sally and the Broadbent brothers killing half of the soldiers while the other half is trapped in the White City after the bridge breaks. All the surviving soldiers eventually starve to death. Back in the Tara village, Maxwell is tended to as he dies of his injury, admitting that he would've died of the cancer even if he had survived the attack. He spends his final days reconciling with his sons, who all forgive him in return. He then agrees to the deal and splits the treasure between the sons, with each receiving roughly $100 million. Borabay is the one dissenter who does not wish to receive any of the treasure, instead simply asking for American citizenship and Maxwell's New Mexico estate to live in. Maxwell happily obliges his request, and then dies in peace. He is given a proper funeral by the Tara people, who have finally forgiven him. In the epilogue, Lewis Skiba's company has gone bankrupt since the Codex was never brought to him, but Skiba finds himself strangely at peace since he was aware of Hauser's brutal methods, and is glad that Hauser failed. Similarly, Sally finds out about Clyve's deception, as Clyve is now being sued by the Swiss pharmaceutical company, claiming that he scammed them. The Codex, which was eventually found among the treasure, is studied by Sally and eventually published openly to the world, bringing in a new era of medicine and revolutionizing several disease treatments. Tom and Sally have fallen in love, and are eventually married. Tom starts his own veterinarian business, while Borabay begins enjoying the privileges of living in America. 

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Wong Dai (Chooi Kheng Beh), an influential Chinese drug kingpin, sits at a long table in an old building in Paris, France, going through the motions of a gigantic merger between himself and several other major Chinese drug dealers. Sai Lo (Hon Ping Tang) controls shipments in the French heroin market in Paris, using laundromats all over Paris as a front. Tang "The Bird" Zhili (Bruce Wang) controls the entire New York drug conglomerate from the Chinatown section of New York, and runs Mahjong gambling rackets. Yin Quinshi (Dave Wong) of Sofia, Bulgaria, controls an Eastern European drug cartel. Li Bo (Tom Wu) controls drug exports in Shanghai, China, and has a penchant for French restaurants. Fang "The Barber" Lee (Ozzie Yue) controls a drug cartel in Paris, France, and he is known to hire unique assassins. And Mr. Chang (Chuke Chan) controls drug money in London, England. Yale University archaeology professor Robert Burns (Steven Seagal), who has just recently won the Winthrop Award for excellence in archaeology, stumbles onto the fact that his expedition to China, near the China/Kazakhstan border, is being used by Wong as a cover for a drug smuggling operation. Realizing the danger of sticking around, Burns and his assistant, Luo Yi (Elaine Tan), make a run for it, but in the resulting gunfight, Yi is killed. When Burns reaches the border, he finds that Wong's smugglers have set him up for smuggling the drugs. Burns lands in a Chinese prison, framed for drug running. Burns is questioned by Chinese narcotics cop Tommie Ling (Michelle Goh) and DEA agent Ed Gray (Corey Johnson), who want to release him and use him as bait to nail the drug smugglers. Burns, referred to by the Chinese drug barons as the "gweilo Professor", is quickly released and sent to the USA, where he promises Yi's father Luo Dazhong (Vincent Wong) that he will get revenge for Yi's murder, but Wong is not done with Burns yet. Wong sends hitmen to Burns's house in New Haven, Connecticut to plant a bomb, which explodes and kills Burns's wife Maya (Kata Dobó). With the two people closest to him dead at the hands of Wong and his minions, and with Tommie and Gray shadowing his every move, Burns is out for revenge. As it turns out, Burns was not always a Professor. Burns was once a thief of Chinese artefacts, who served time in prison and earned his archaeology degree while in prison. He changed his name and married Maya after he was released. With his determination to exterminate those who killed Maya, Burns tells Tommie and Gray to stay out of his way, as he cuts a bloody path through Chinatown and across Europe on his way to a confrontation with Wong. 

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The film is set in 2025, and centers on a sport called "Futuresport" (a combination of basketball, baseball and hockey that uses hoverboards and rollerblades) created as a non-lethal way to reduce gang warfare. Tre (Dean Cain) must save the world from Hawaiian Liberation Organization terrorists by winning in the game of futuresport. 

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Michael Scofield and Fernando Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) face a lockdown in order for the guards to search cells for contraband, when they're about to throw away a knife, they were stopped by Bellick (Wade Williams), who sends Sucre to SHU. Warden Pope (Stacy Keach) calls off the search for Michael's cell, but Bellick feels determined to, and sneaks into his cell when the prisoners are away, and finds the name "Allen Schweitzer". Bellick runs the name on the database, only to find no one matching it. Meanwhile, Sucre urges Stolte to let him call Maricruz (Camille Guaty), but is refused. Veronica (Robin Tunney) investigates who is framing Lincoln Burrows. She finds a tape, where she sees Lincoln shoot Terrence Steadman dead. Lincoln claims that he is being framed, stating the man was already dead and Lincoln never pulled the trigger. She attempts to talk to Crab Simmonds (Tab Baker), who didn't testify in his case, only to find out that he was killed of an apparent drug overdose. She is contacted by Leticia Barris (Adina Porter), Crab's girlfriend, but as they meet, she is spooked as Kellerman (Paul Adelstein) and Hale (Danny McCarthy) are watching. Back in Fox River, Michael attempts to get to a bolt from a bleacher belonging to T-Bag (Robert Knepper), but is stopped. He doesn't want Scofield on the bleacher unless he will join in the racist battle between the whites and blacks, but he declines. On his second attempt, T-Bag's gang take the bolt off him, so eventually, he decides to join in to get at the bolt. However, C-Note (Rockmond Dunbar) sees this, and when he confronts Scofield regarding the PUGNAc, he refuses to give the pills. Soon, everyone comes out of their cell for count, when the riot starts. Michael decides to get the bolt back from T-Bag's cellmate (Brian Hamman), and does so after a struggle. C-Note sees this and a black inmate stabs the cellmate several times; the wounded man dies in Michael's arms. T-Bag believes Michael killed the cellmate, and plans to get back at him. The fight stops through lockdown. Michael rubs the bolt until the end forms a hexagon shape key, big enough to unscrew the cell's toilet. It is explained that "Allen" is the screw, and "Schweitzer" is the lavatory. After the lockdown is finished, C-Note decides to give him the PUGNAc due to his take in the riot, and tells him he will eventually find out what he's up to. Michael takes it, where Dr. Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies) gives him the test and finds out he is diabetic. Afterwards, Bellick takes Michael to an area, where Abruzzi (Peter Stormare) attempts to extract information regarding Fibonacci's whereabouts, but refuses to answer. Abruzzi has his men cut off two of Michael's toes to try to get him to talk. 

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Michael Scofield tells the team in his escape plan, now consisting of Sucre (Amaury Nolasco), Lincoln (Dominic Purcell), and John Abruzzi (Peter Stormare), that they have to take out either English, Fitz or Percy, the three names on his forearm from the tattoo. Meanwhile, Secret Service Agent Kellerman (Paul Adelstein) and Hale pay a visit to Warden Pope regarding Scofield's transfer. Pope denies the request, where the agents proceed in blackmailing him concerning the affair he had from Toledo, and threaten to tell his wife about this. Pope tells the agents that his wife already knows about the affair, but the agents know he did not tell her the whole truth. She knows nothing of the son he had there. Michael returns to his cell to find Pope, who tells him that some higher power wants him transferred out of Fox River. Michael plans to take the advice from Charles Westmoreland and get a transfer block letter, telling Pope he has sinusitis, to keep him in at least a month yet. However, Kellerman and Hale continue blackmailing him, and tells him to drop the paperwork, which he reluctantly does. Nick Savrinn and Veronica Donovan continue to try to find legal grounds to exonerate Lincoln. From the copy of the videotape of the murder, an expert believes that the gunshot sound was faked, but needs the original. However, they find it was destroyed in a "freak accident". When they return to Veronica's home, they find the copy has been stolen, and she suspects Nick may be involved. Michael tells Abruzzi to get him a key to the warden's office. Abruzzi does this by melting toothbrushes into a stolen mold. Towards the end of the day, Michael, while constructing the model of the Taj Mahal, tells Pope that the structure will collapse if he does not remain there to hold the piece as the glue sets. Warden Pope leaves for the day and Michael immediately uses the replica key to leave the office through the back door and reach the roof. However, during count, Bellick realises a missing Scofield, and alerts the authorities. However, that was Michael's plan all along. English, Fitz and Percy are the names of the only three streets that lead to the prison and when the police cars come in response to the alarm, he learns that the cops only take English and Percy, leaving Fitz wide open. Now that he knows which path to take, he returns to the Warden's office, where he is found with the replica of the Taj Mahal. Nobody suspects anything. However, Pope says that Michael will be transferred, to Michael's dismay. The next morning, Michael is about to be transferred, but Pope decides to cancel it. Before Kellerman could get there, Pope admits to his wife the son he had during his affair. In another place, a mysterious woman tells the secret service to deal with Lincoln rather than Michael as he is Michael's weakness. 

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Clinical psychologist Dr. Chris Kelvin is approached by emissaries for DBA, a corporation operating a space station orbiting the planet Solaris, who relay a message sent from his scientist friend Dr. Gibarian. Gibarian requests that Kelvin come to the station to help understand an unusual phenomenon but is unwilling to explain more. DBA is unsure how to proceed, as the mission to study Solaris has been sidetracked and none of the astronauts want to return home. In addition, DBA has lost contact with the security patrol recently dispatched to the station. Kelvin agrees to a solo mission to Solaris as a last attempt to bring the crew home safely. Upon arriving at Solaris Station, Kelvin learns that Gibarian has committed suicide and most of the crew have either died or disappeared under bizarre circumstances. Both surviving crew members, Snow and Dr. Gordon, are reluctant to explain the situation at hand. The situation is further complicated when Kelvin sees a young boy running through the station. Once alone in his quarters, Kelvin dreams about his long dead wife Rheya, reliving when they first met and some of their most romantic and intimate moments. He awakens shocked and terrified to encounter Rheya, apparently alive again beside him in bed. Kelvin leads this "Rheya" into an escape pod and jettisons the pod into space. Afterward, he confides his actions to Snow and comes to understand that replicas of the crew's loved ones have been mysteriously appearing (the little boy he saw earlier is apparently a replica of Gibarian's son). Rheya manifests a second time, but this time Kelvin lets her stay. Gradually, this version of Rheya comes to realize that she does not feel human; her memories feel artificial, in that she lacks the emotional attachment that comes with actually having lived them. Through numerous flashbacks, Kelvin and Rheya's meeting and courtship are explored, with hints as to her disturbed upbringing and emotional difficulties. It is also gradually revealed through these flashbacks that Rheya once terminated a pregnancy but did not tell Kelvin about it. When he discovered her choice, Kelvin was so distraught that he walked out on her. Rheya then committed suicide and was later found by Kelvin when he returned to her. Kelvin, the replica of Rheya, Snow and Gordon meet to discuss the situation. In frustration at Kelvin's apparent attachment to the virtual Rheya, Gordon blurts out what Kelvin did to the previous Rheya replica. An appalled Rheya abandons the meeting. Kelvin confronts Gordon, who in turn chastises him for getting emotionally involved with something that is not really human and may eventually pose a threat to human beings on the station as well as on Earth. Later, apparently during a dream, Kelvin has a vision of Gibarian, and asks him what Solaris wants. Gibarian balks at the idea of knowing an alien entity's motivations, or even that it might have motivations, and tells Kelvin simply that "there are no answers, only choices". Kelvin wakes to find that Rheya has killed herself. Soon afterward, she self-resurrects, and it is revealed that other manifestations who have "died" had done the same. Gordon develops an apparatus which can permanently destroy a replica but Kelvin objects to using it on Rheya. Driven by his own grief and guilt over the "real" Rheya's death on Earth, he begins ingesting a chemical stimulant to stay awake in order to monitor Rheya, trying to avoid repeating the past and essentially abandoning her to suicide. Kelvin eventually falls asleep and Rheya successfully petitions Gordon to destroy her with the apparatus as she has done for her own replica(s). Traumatized, Kelvin confronts Dr. Gordon who maintains she merely facilitated in assisted suicide and only strives for the preservation of the humans on the station. Kelvin and Gordon then discover a dead body stashed away in a ceiling vent in the station's cold room – Snow. The Snow they have been interacting with is a replica. Confronted by Gordon and Kelvin, the Snow replica explains that upon being dreamed into existence, he was attacked by the real Snow and thus killed him in self-defense. He goes on to tell them that repeat usage of the apparatus has drained the ship's fuel cell reactor, making a return trip to Earth impossible. Furthermore, Solaris has begun to exponentially increase its mass, thereby gravitationally pulling the space station inexorably toward the planet. Gordon and Kelvin begin prepping a smaller space vehicle called Athena to escape. Back on Earth, Kelvin struggles to return to normal life, haunted by the idea that he "remembered her wrong" – that is, Rheya as being invariably suicidal. When he accidentally cuts his finger in his kitchen, the wound immediately heals, and it is then that Kelvin realizes that he never returned to Earth. In a flashback, Kelvin gives up the idea of boarding the lifeboat, and Doctor Gordon leaves him behind. As the plummeting space station rattles itself to pieces around him, the replica of Gibarian's young son appears and offers his hand in assistance. In the kitchen, Rheya appears to Kelvin yet again. This time, however, she is tranquil, and assures Kelvin that they no longer have to think in terms like "life" and "death," and that all they have ever done is forgiven. 

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In 1949, young cowboy John Grady Cole's maternal grandfather dies. John had grown up on his grandfather's ranch, but it was put up for sale when the old man died. His mother has no ties to it anymore, and would rather have the money. With no home, John asks his best friend Lacey Rawlins to leave his family ranch in San Angelo, Texas and join him to travel on horseback to cross the border 150 miles south, to seek work in Mexico. They encounter a peculiar 13-year-old boy named Jimmy Blevins on the trail to Mexico, whom they befriend but from whom they then separate. Later on they meet a young aristocrat's daughter, Alejandra Villarreal, with whom Cole falls in love. Cole and Rawlins become hired hands for Alejandra's father, who likes their work, but Cole's romantic interest in Alejandra is not welcomed by her wealthy aunt. After Alejandra's father takes her away, Cole and Rawlins are arrested by Mexican police and taken to jail, where they again encounter Blevins, who has been accused of stealing a horse and of murder, and is killed by a corrupt police captain. Cole and Rawlins are sent to a Mexican prison for abetting Blevins' crimes, where they must defend themselves against dangerous inmates. The pair are both nearly killed. Alejandra's aunt frees Cole and Rawlins, on the condition that she never sees them again. While Rawlins returns to his parents' ranch in Texas, Cole attempts to reunite with Alejandra over her family's objections. Her aunt is confident that Alejandra will keep her word and not get back together with Cole–so much so that she even gives Cole her niece's phone number. Cole urges Alejandra to come to Texas with him. She, however, decides she must keep her word and though she loves him, she will not go with him. Cole then sets out to get revenge on the captain who took the Blevins boy's life, as well as to get back his, Lacey's and Blevins' horses. After making the captain his prisoner, he turns him over to Mexican men, including one with whom Cole had previously shared a cell when they were imprisoned by the captain. Cole is spared the decision to kill the captain, but it is implied the men whom the captain was turned over to will do that. Reentering the US and riding through a small town in Texas, towing two horses behind the one he is riding, he stops to inquire what day it is (it is Thanksgiving Day). He asks a couple of men if they would be interested in buying a rifle, as he needs the money. One is a sheriff's deputy and arrests him because all three horses have different brands, and they suspect Cole is a horse thief. In court, Cole tells the judge his story from the beginning. The judge believes him and orders Cole freed and the horses returned to him. Later that evening, Cole shows up at the judge's home, troubled. The judge had said good things about him in court, but Cole feels guilty that Blevins was killed–and while there was nothing he could have done to prevent the killing, he never even spoke up at the time and is upset with himself for that. The judge tells him he is being too hard on himself and it could not have been helped; he must go on and live his life. Cole rides to Rawlins' family's ranch, where he asks his friend if he wants his horse back. 

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Widower Paul Annendale has taken his two children, Rya and Mark, on their annual camping vacation to the small New England town of Black Water. What no one there knows is that the town has become a testing ground for a new experiment involving techniques related to subliminal advertising. Developed by amoral scientist Ogden Salsbury and funded by multi-millionaire Leonard Dawson, this newly discovered technique was introduced into the town, with the aid of a chemical in the water supply and allows anyone with a special code phrase to gain total mind control of an exposed subject. Together with local store owner Sam Edison, Paul intends to put a stop to this illegal conspiracy. 

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Graham Harris was once one of the world's foremost mountain climbers, until a fall five years earlier left him with a lame leg, a fear of heights...and a frightening psychic ability in which he can see murders as they are happening. Harris lives in New York City, where a murderous madman known as the Butcher has been mutilating young women. While he is giving an interview on live television one night, Graham senses the Butcher claiming another victim. When the madman realizes that Graham poses a threat to him he formulates a plan to kill the clairvoyant. While working late one night in his office building, Graham senses that the Butcher is coming to his floor aboard an elevator. With his girlfriend Connie at his side, Graham begins a long night of playing hide and seek to try to avoid the psychopath's grip, during which, Connie and Graham gradually run out of places to hide, and are eventually faced with a horrific ultimatum: either stay and take their chances with the Butcher, or scale the face of the building in the midst of a blizzard. Graham is eventually talked into facing his fear with the latter, with the Butcher shooting at them all the while. Eventually, the Butcher is violently killed in an incident involving a piece of machinery. Graham and Connie escape, but they soon meet up with Anthony Prine, who is the other half of the Butcher. (It is revealed that he and Bollinger had a quasi-Leopold and Loeb relationship.) Prine confronts them, but he is wounded by detective Ira Preduski. In the epilogue, it is revealed that Connie and Graham are engaged. 

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Hilary Thomas, a screenwriter living in Los Angeles, is attacked in her home by Bruno Frye, a mentally disturbed man whose vineyard in Napa Valley she recently visited. Frye tries to rape her, but she forces him to leave at gunpoint and calls the police. Detective Tony Clemenza tells her that Frye has an airtight alibi, as the police called his home and he answered, proving that he could not have been anywhere near Los Angeles that night. The next day, Frye returns and attacks Hilary again, this time receiving several stab wounds before escaping. She calls the police and once again meets with Clemenza, who tells her that Frye's body has been found and takes her to the morgue to identify it. Afterward, Clemenza asks Hilary out, and the two begin a romantic relationship. Hilary is once again attacked by a man who appears to be Frye. "Frye" escapes just before Clemenza arrives and Hilary tells him what happened. After some investigations, Frye's psychologist lets them listen to a tape recording of one of Frye's sessions. Frye talks about identical twins being born with cauls on their faces, and says he read somewhere that this was a mark of a demon. Frye has been killing women he believes are possessed by the spirit of his dead mother, who abused him and said she would come back from the dead. He believes that Hilary is his mother's latest "host". Hilary and Tony meet a retired madam who tells them that Leo, Frye's grandfather, brought his daughter, Katherine, there to be cared for after he got her pregnant. Shortly after Leo's death, Katherine gave birth to identical twin boys. The twins were born with cauls on their faces, leading the mentally unstable Katherine to believe they were demons. She raised her sons as if they were one person. They were both called Bruno, and both were rewarded or punished for anything either one of them did. Finally, Hilary and Clemenza return to Frye's home, where he once again attacks them, before being killed during a struggle with Clemenza. 

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In the summer of 1980, introverted bookworm Colin Jacobs moves to Santa Leona, California with his mother, and soon meets and becomes friends with another boy his age. Roy Borden is everything Colin has never been, but secretly wishes he could be- brave, outgoing, muscular, athletically talented and a consummate ladies' man. He is an instinctive fighter, ready to stand up to anyone or anything- a stark contrast to Colin, who "learned long ago that resistance causes pain" and avoids trouble and confrontations. Despite their differences, Roy appears glad to be friends with Colin, even remarking that the boys and girls who think they are his friends are really just "acquaintances". Colin and Roy become close friends in a short period of time, and Roy declares them to be "blood brothers" after a brief ceremony. Roy displays some odd behavior, such as asking if Colin has ever killed anything and calling anything fun a "popper", but Colin does not think anything of it. Colin meets a beautiful girl called Heather Lipschitz in a store one day, and is overwhelmed but thrilled as he realizes the two are developing a romantic interest in each other. He does not tell Roy, but assumes that his association with Roy has indeed helped his own image and made girls more interested in him. Roy begins to confide more in Colin, revealing an extremely cynical worldview, and an obsession with sex, violence, and death. Colin treats it as a joke, even as Roy claims to have killed two other boys who refused his offer to be blood brothers. He leads Colin to an abandoned house by a railroad line, where he has set up an old pickup truck and prepared it to be pushed downhill to cause an approaching passenger train to wreck. He asks for Colin's help, but Colin, realizing it was never a joke, tries to stop him. Roy throws Colin aside and tries to push the truck down to the tracks on his own, but it needed two people to keep it on course, and Roy screams in rage as the train goes by unharmed. Roy tries to kill Colin in the junkyard, but after narrowly escaping, Colin finds that no one believes him when he tries to reveal who Roy is. Colin turns to Heather, and the two of them work to uncover the secrets of Roy's hidden life. They learn that Roy is adopted, and that he accidentally killed his adoptive sister Belinda when he was eight years old and got behind the wheel of his adopted father's car while Belinda was playing behind it. Mrs. Borden, who came outside just in time to see it happen, went into shock and said over and over "Her little head... it just popped". Soon after, Mrs. Borden, who has always been obsessed with keeping her house spotlessly clean, savagely beat Roy with a metal dustpan when he came home and tracked dirt into the house. Severely traumatized by both incidents, Roy became deeply cynical and embraced the idea that he was a murderer, convincing himself over time that he did it all on purpose. Lonely and desperate for a real friend, Roy tried reaching out to two boys before Colin, and Colin and Heather confirm that the boys really did die when, where and how Roy said they did. Colin calls Roy and convinces him that he "got a girl" for both of them, and Roy reluctantly agrees to meet him at an abandoned mansion at the edge of town so they can take turns raping her. Despite her own fear of the situation, Heather agrees to be the bait, and Colin makes it look as if she was beaten up and then tied to a chair. Roy arrives ahead of time, and Colin manages to hide the revolver he stole from his mother's bedroom. Colin pretends that he sees things Roy's way, and that he wants to be blood brothers again. Roy initially doesn't believe him, but is amazed to see Heather there, just as Colin promised. Colin pretends to be eager to "share" her with Roy, impressing and delighting him. Roy declares they are brothers again, but Colin takes out the revolver and says he is taking Roy in. Roy realizes he has been tricked and attacks, and Colin is hopelessly outmatched as they fight. He manages to get the revolver back, and shoots Roy in the leg as they struggle. Roy looks up as Colin gets ready to fire again, this time at Roy's head, and his expression reveals something shocking: Roy is desperately unhappy, and wants to be put out of his misery. Colin fights down the urge to kill him, and goes outside to call the police. As he does, he realizes that the "voice of the night" is within him, too, and he must resist the urge to listen to it like Roy did. 

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An amnesic blonde girl appears in the middle of traffic on a busy day. Carol and Paul, a married couple, are drawn to her, seeing her as the child they never had, they take her in. Then Carol begins to have nightmares about ghastly noises in the dead of night, a bloody face in a mirror, and a razor-sharp ax. 

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A fictionalized memoir set in both the United States and France during the 1960s American civil rights movement, White Dog focuses on the events that occur after Gary and his then-wife Jean Seberg, an actress and an activist, adopt a handsome and clearly well-trained German Shepherd dog who comes back to their home with one of their other dogs. At first, the dog, which they name Batka, is an ideal new member of the family: intelligent, devoted, and quickly befriending the couple's assortment of other animals. To their dismay, they discover that the dog, a former Alabama police dog, was trained to attack black people on sight. Although they are told the dog is too old to be retrained, they take him to a black dog trainer to try. Instead, the man trains the dog to attack white people, including Gary himself. Gary states that he changed the ending of the American version to be more optimistic. 

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Two sisters, both dedicated to women's civil rights, fight for it in very different ways. The story is interspersed with flashbacks into the sisters' childhood. Juliane works as a feminist journalist campaigning for a woman's right to abortion while Marianne commits herself to a violent revolutionary terrorist group. The film quickly informs us that Marianne has abandoned her husband and child. Her husband arrives at Juliane's house and states that she must take Jan (their son) because he has to leave the country for work. Juliane is not supportive of her sister's choices because she feels that they are damaging to the women's movement and informs the husband that she does not have time to care for the child. The husband steps out to "go get something", promising to return, but instead takes his life, leaving Jan without a guardian. Marianne meets with Juliane to discuss her political views with her sister and urge her to join the movement. Juliane informs her of her husband's suicide and of her intention to find a foster home for Jan. Marianne asks her sister to watch over Jan but Juliane replies "You would have me take on the life that you chose to leave", basically stating "so what's not good enough for you is good enough for me". Juliane's refusal does not stop Marianne from continuing in the movement. She is content to commit Jan to foster care because she believes that "any life he has in foster care will be better than the life many children have in third world countries." The sisters' paths continue to cross as Marianne regularly bursts in unannounced to her sister's life. On one occasion, Marianne wakes her and her long-term boyfriend up at 3 a.m., makes coffee for two of her comrades and goes through Juliane's clothes for anything she might like. Soon afterward, we discover that Marianne has been arrested and is being held in a high security prison. Juliane goes to visit her sister. When she arrives she is searched and, after being left in the waiting room, the guard returns and informs her that Marianne refuses to see her. Juliane goes home agonizing over her inability to communicate with her sister and see how she is doing. Her boyfriend suggests that she writes to her sister telling her how she feels. The film goes into a flashback of their childhood where we see the closeness of the sisters. Juliane mails the letter and soon after is able to visit her sister. They argue often but Juliane continues to visit her sister. Following a bad argument when Marianne slaps her sister, Marianne is moved to a maximum- security prison where the two are separated by a pane of glass and must communicate through an intercom. Juliane becomes so obsessed with her sister and her problems that her own relationships begin to fall apart. Her boyfriend suggests that they take a vacation. While on vacation they see Marianne on TV but cannot understand what has happened to her because of the language barrier. Juliane runs back to their hotel and calls her parents to find that Marianne has "committed suicide" which Juliane and her father do not accept. Juliane begins an obsessive journey to discover what really happened. This destroys her relationship with her boyfriend of ten years. She ultimately proves to herself that Marianne was murdered but, when she calls the papers with the news, she is informed that her sister's death is "old news" and nobody cares if it was murder or suicide. Juliane is left with the knowledge but cannot convince the papers to defend the name of a dead terrorist. Later, Juliane is reunited with Jan because someone attempts to murder him by arson when they find out who his mother was. Juliane takes him back home with her after he has undergone extensive reconstructive surgery. He is aloof and has no interest in having a relationship with his aunt. He has nightmares of the fire that nearly killed him. The film ends with him walking into Juliane's workroom and tearing up the picture of his mother that is on the wall. Juliane tells him "you are wrong, Jan. Your mother was a great woman. I'll tell you about her". Jan says that he wants to know everything and then yells "Start now! Start now!" The film fades out on Juliane's face looking at him. 

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A hiker finds a dead woman on the North York Moors. The victim had been strangled and is identified as Alice Ruber. Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) is asked to examine a diamond ring belonging to millionaire industrialist Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely). Poirot declares it a fake and assured that Sir Horace would have had given a real diamond to his mistress and that Arlena Stuart Marshall (Diana Rigg) had returned the fake, Poirot agrees to meet Sir Horace at an exclusive Adriatic Sea island and confront her. The hotel is the former summer palace of the reigning King of Tyrania, now owned by Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith), who had received the palace "for services rendered". Sir Horace's former mistress is an actress on holiday with her husband Kenneth (Denis Quilley). Arlena is emotionally abusive to his daughter, Linda (Emily Hone) and flirts with Patrick Redfern (Nicholas Clay) who is married to Christine (Jane Birkin). Patrick is on the island only because Arlena arranged it. Kenneth turns to his old friend, Daphne, who reviles the way that Arlena treats both him and Linda. Arlena has also caused financial problems for Odell and Myra Gardener (James Mason and Sylvia Miles) by walking out of a major play and refusing another. Writer Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall) has already spent the royalties advanced to him for a tell-all biography of Arlena, but she refuses to give him a release. Early on the third morning, Arlena takes a paddle-boat to Ladder Bay. Patrick and Myra go for a boat trip around the island and see a body lying motionless on the beach. Patrick approaches the body and recognizes Arlena, announcing that she has been strangled. Poirot must determine which of his eight fellow guests—or Daphne—is the murderer. Daphne had heard Kenneth in his room typing at the time of the murder, and Christine was with Linda at Gull Cove and did not leave until 11:55 for a 12:30 tennis match. Sir Horace argued with Arlena about the diamond at Ladder Bay at 11:30, which is confirmed by his yacht crew and by Daphne. Arlena kept the diamond, promising an explanation that evening, and Poirot finds the fake jewel nearby in a grotto. Patrick left at 11:30 with Myra, seeing Sir Horace's yacht coming, and hearing the noon cannon. Rex met Linda entering Gull Cove at 12:00 and reports that a bottle flung from the top of a cliff nearly hit him. Odell was seen reading by Daphne and her staff. He claims low water pressure hindered his 12:15 wash before tennis, but nobody admits to bathing at that time. Assembling the suspects together, Poirot accuses Christine and Patrick of the crime: Christine knocked out Arlena and hid her in the nearby grotto, and Patrick strangled the helpless Arlena later. Christine posed as Arlena with makeup to simulate a suntan, Arlena's swimsuit and large red hat, to be purposely mis-identified by Patrick in Myra's presence. But Poirot had smelled Arlena's perfume in the grotto. Christine set Linda's watch twenty minutes fast, suggested a swim cap to muffle the noon cannon, and corrected the watch afterward. She tossed out the lotion bottle, almost hitting Rex, and bathed off her tan, thus depriving the hotel's poor water system of pressure. Poirot suspects that Patrick switched Sir Horace's jewel with a copy and that Patrick and Christine killed Arlena to protect the theft. The Redferns scoff at the detective's accusations, as he has no real proof. On leaving the hotel, Patrick pays by cheque, signing the "R" in "Redfern" in a distinctive way that Poirot recognises as the same way "Felix Ruber", husband of the Yorkshire moor victim, signed his name. The hiker that found the body had been Christine, establishing Patrick's alibi. Poirot knows photos from the British police will show Patrick and Felix to be the same person. Patrick puts a pipe in his mouth that has never been lit during his stay; Poirot empties the pipe bowl to reveal the genuine diamond. Patrick Redfern sucker punches Poirot into unconsciousness. The closing scene shows Daphne feeding the now conscious Poirot and informing him that the king is awarding him the Order of St Goodwin The Inquisitive, First Class, as Kenneth and Linda look on smiling. Meanwhile, several members of Daphne's staff are shown holding the Redferns prisoner on the island's shuttle boat on the way to the mainland while Blatt, Brewster, and the Gardners gleefully taunt the murderous couple with a champagne toast from Blatt's yacht. 

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The setting of the story is the imaginary village of Quiquendone in West Flanders (now part of Belgium) whose citizens are described as "well-to-do folks, wise, prudent, sociable, with even tempers, hospitable, perhaps a bit heavy in conversation as in mind"; and where even "the dogs don't bite, and the cats don't scratch". Van Tricasse, the town's mayor, claims that "the man who dies without ever having decided upon anything in his life has very nearly attained to perfection." A prosperous scientist Dr. Ox comes to the authorities and offers to build a novel gas lighting system, at no cost to the town. The offer is gladly accepted. Dr. Ox and his assistant Gédéon Ygène (whose surnames happen to form the word oxygène, "oxygen") propose to use electrolysis to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, and pump the two gases through separate pipes to the city. The doctor's secret plan is however to conduct a large scale experiment on the effect of oxygen on plants, animals and humans, and so he pumps an excess of the invisible and odorless gas through all lamps. The enriched air has remarkable effects on the town. It accelerates the growth of plants, and causes excitement and aggressiveness in animals and humans. Eventually the excited citizens of Quiquendone decide to go to war against the neighboring village of Virgamen, to avenge an old offense: in 1195, a cow belonging to that town had dared to step into a Quiquendonian field and eat some mouthfuls of their grass. However, as the army was on the way to battle, an accident at Dr. Ox's plant causes oxygen and hydrogen to mix, producing a huge explosion that destroys the plant. The story ends with the town back to its traditional slow and quiet way of life. Dr. Ox and his assistant, who were not at the plant when the accident happened, disappeared without trace. 

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The book begins with Slim sneaking up on, and killing, a "goblin or beast" on the fair grounds of a local carnival. Goblins are monsters which can shape shift between human and bestial forms, genetically engineered super-predators which desire bloodshed and human misery. Created in an ancient, technologically superior era of human civilization, they exist to torment and ultimately murder humans. They can only be seen by a few people, including Slim himself, Rya Raines (his wife), and Joel Tuck (Slim's friend and fellow carnie). These goblins are superhuman and extremely dangerous and genocidal, at least as intelligent as us, and can mimic human behavior. While they appear and act as a normal person would, they experience only negative emotions like fear and hate. Their only pleasure is in torturing and murdering humans. Slim's claim to fame is his "Twilight Eyes", which give him the ability to receive psychic, or prophetic, premonitions of the future. They also allow him to see through the human seeming disguise of the goblins. These eyes are named what they are because they are colored purple like the skyline at dusk. After this encounter, Slim proceeds to join the carnival (one of many he has drifted from) as a way to support himself while killing goblins and hiding from his murderous past (in which he killed an uncle by marriage that was a goblin responsible for the deaths of several family members). One of the prominent members of the "carnies" is a young woman named Rya Raines, who quickly becomes his lover and confidant. As their relationship matures, Slim has several more run-ins with the goblins which leads to the revelation that his friend Joel, and even Rya herself, can see the goblins too, and that each of them in their own way has suffered terribly from the goblins' actions in their past. It is soon revealed that Rya had long before made a pact with the goblins to report to them whenever she found someone who could see through their disguise in exchange for safety from their predations. She wants him to make the same pact with them, but he refuses. This reality creates a gulf between her and Slim that comes to bloodshed between them. She regrets this later and after reconciling with Slim she becomes his wife. They decide to go on a mission to destroy any and all of the creatures they possibly can. Together they set out on a personal mission to wage a secret war against the monsters in a small mining town named Yontsdown, Pennsylvania, the seeming center of their cruel and brutal version of civilization. There they would discover and face the ultimate, diabolical plans the goblins had for the world and all of mankind. 

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When a pair of renowned psychologists are brutally murdered from unexpected causes, Laura McCaffrey is called to assist in the case. Meeting with Dan Haldane, a police lieutenant, she is told that one of the victims was her divorced spouse, Dylan, who kidnapped their only daughter six years ago. While inside the crime scene, police notify Lieutenant Haldane of a naked young girl wandering the streets of Los Angeles in a daze. It turns out that the girl was Melanie McCaffrey, Laura's daughter. She was found in a catatonic, autistic state, and is sent to the hospital. It soon becomes apparent that Dylan was using his only child in a series of experiments that combined science and the occult. Unfortunately, it has resulted in unintended and deadly consequences. 

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The protagonist of the story is a woman who is in the process of divorcing her abusive husband Eric, an intense scientist at a bio-research company, when he is killed in a traffic accident. As it turns out, the husband was doing research into immortality, due to an obsession with cheating death stemming from sexual abuse he suffered as a child and the fear that his abuser is waiting for him in Hell. In fact, he experimented on himself using an untested serum designed to grant incredible regenerative abilities. The husband wakes up in the morgue, but his "immortality" turns out to be flawed; it cannot properly repair brain damage, as the "mind" is made of electrical signals and not just flesh and protein. The trauma from the traffic accident has resulted in him suffering constant pain and a lack of mental clarity. The husband, now an unstoppable killing machine, proceeds to stalk his wife across the country while slowly descending into madness and the return from death causing him to mutate at a rapid pace. Rachael and her boyfriend Ben Shadway track the reanimated Eric to his secret country hideaway in the hope of killing him before he can regenerate to a level where he would be able to find and kill Rachael. However, Eric outwits them and manages to hide in the trunk of Rachael's car after overhearing her and Ben in conversation discussing their plan to split up and meet in Las Vegas. As Rachael Leben unwittingly transports Eric toward Las Vegas, she stops off along the way and witnesses Eric emerge from the trunk of her car, now hideously transformed into some kind of indescribable mutant and rapidly mutating. A chase ensues into the desert, but Rachael manages to escape from Eric's clutches while he's feeding on a den of rattlesnakes and finds her way back to her car, setting off again toward Vegas. Some time later Eric kills and eats the driver of a car then rapes, kills, and devours the female passenger before he too sets off to Vegas. Ben Shadway is also being chased by federal agent Anson Sharp, who harbours a 20-year-old grudge against Shadway after the two served in Vietnam together and Shadway exposed Sharp's corruption and illegal smuggling activities, culminating in Sharp being dishonourably discharged from the US army. Partners in Eric Leben's bio-research company are also on the tail of Shadway and Rachael Leben to try to prevent them from exposing the top-secret project that the company was working on to the media but are stopped by Sharp's forces. Sharp seeks to kill them both, to keep Project Wildcard secret and get revenge on Ben. After a lengthy pursuit across Nevada to Las Vegas, the couple have their final confrontation with Eric at Ben's hotel. Eric's mutation finally stabilizes into a seemingly unstoppable and unrecognizable insectoid form incapable of being slain by the firearms they have. Thinking quickly they pour gasoline on Eric and set him on fire. Consumed by fire, the accelerated metabolism in Eric's mutated body devours itself in an attempt to regenerate and mutate further, reducing his body to ooze and finally killing the genetic abomination but not before Eric's shattered consciousness finally accepts death. Sharp attempts to kill them but one of his own men who realizes how insane Sharp had become shoots Sharp in the head and kills him. With both their enemies dead, Rachael and Ben finally prepare to get married as well as break the story to the press. 

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Single parent Christine Scavello and her young son Joey are confronted in a mall parking lot by a madwoman who claims that Joey is the Antichrist. After a distressing attack on the family home results in her dog being decapitated, Christine enlists the help of private detective Charlie Harrison. Harrison traces a van that is following Christine back to one Grace Spivey—a charismatic elderly woman who is the leader of a fanatical religious cult called The Servants Of Twilight. Christine is provided with bodyguards for her protection; however, it is not long before one of them is killed in an attack by cult members. Christine, Charlie, Joey, and the new dog Chewbacca begin a tiresome cross country journey to escape the deluded members of "The Twilight". It seems that no matter how far they travel or where they go, Spivey's people find them. It is revealed that this is due to Spivey being a psychic who can see into the future, a gift that also plagues her with many sleepless nights. After several more attacks (including a car bomb and an arson attack) the group tries to escape the growing threat of The Twilight by retreating to Charlie's lodge in the mountains. Here, Charlie finds himself falling in love with Christine, and the two end up sleeping together. Spivey is certain that Joey is the Antichrist, and continually has visions of the apocalypse where the child is the cause. Rather than considering herself insane or unjust, Spivey sees her need to kill the boy (as well as anyone that may get in her way) as a service to mankind. Her faith is so strong that she is able to enlist the following of many key members of the community, including police officers and a man named Kyle Barlow - a sociopath Spivey had saved from a life of crime. The Servants of Twilight eventually track the group to Charlie's mountain lodge. After a chase and more gun fights with heavily armed cult members in a treacherous blizzard, the family finds themselves in a cave in the side of a mountain. They are exhausted, Charlie has suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder and Joey develops a serious illness, including hives to the face and a very pale complexion, both caused by exposure to the extreme cold. Kyle Barlow knows he must finish the job, but finds he does not have the ability to kill a child, even if Grace believed him to be the Antichrist. The story reaches its climax inside the cave when Spivey and her last standing helper, Kyle Barlow, begin their descent to kill the child and stop the supposed rise of the Antichrist. Christine has no energy left to fight, and Charlie is barely conscious from his gunshot wound. It all looks very bleak as Grace Spivey raises a gun to Joey's head. Just before she pulls the trigger, however, Spivey is attacked by a barrage of bats who attack her and leave her for dead. The strange behavior of the bats causes Christine to wonder if her son could have caused the attack. The book closes with the end of the ordeal and with Christine and Charlie in a stable relationship. Charlie’s curiosity about Joey grows, as the boy's illness cleared up very quickly and mysteriously. The story ends with Charlie trying to find evidence in the buried remains of the family's original dog. The grave does not hold the remains of Christine's dog but a dog of a different breed, which Charlie finds humorous and concludes that Joey could not be the Antichrist. 

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As Laura Shane is born in January 1955, during a freak lightning storm, a mysterious blond stranger (Stefan) prevents a drunken Dr. Paul Markwell from attending to the difficult and complicated delivery. Her mother dies in childbirth, though Laura is a perfectly healthy, exceptionally beautiful baby, and she is left to be raised by her father Bob Shane. When Laura is eight years old, a junkie attempts to rob her father's convenience store; however the blond stranger reappears, saving them both and instructing them on what to tell the police. In 1967, Bob Shane dies of a heart attack. At her father’s funeral Laura sees the stranger watching over her yet again and begins to think he is her guardian angel, along with an unnamed man calling for her when she tries to follow him. Laura is sent to live in the McIlroy orphanage, where she is housed with a set of twins, Thelma and Ruth, who later become her best friends. She also meets Willy Sheener, a frightening child molester who is also the maintenance man and custodian. Willy becomes infatuated with Laura due to her uncommonly good looks, haunting her wherever she goes in the orphanage. However, due to past experience the twins warn Laura that reporting Sheener, also known as "The White Eel" or "Eel" for short, will do more harm than good. Laura is eventually sent to live with a foster family that exploits her, so she purposely behaves badly and they send her back to the orphanage. After several disturbing incidents, her mysterious angel visits Sheener and brutally beats him. This scares him off for some time, until Laura is sent to live with the Dockwielers, with whom she quickly forms a bond. Sheener comes to their home one afternoon; Laura is able to fend him off and eventually kill him, but the shock of discovering the scene causes her new foster mother to suffer a fatal heart attack, sending Laura back to the orphanage. Shortly thereafter, Laura turns 13 and is moved to another orphanage for older children, and receives the devastating news that Ruth was caught in a fire in McIlroy and died. At college, Laura's creative writing brings her to the attention of Danny, a naive man who has fallen in love with her from afar. After a botched attempt at being her secret admirer they agree to date and over time, fall in love. After their marriage Laura becomes a celebrated author of several books and gives birth to a boy, Christopher Robert. The birth was difficult, making it so she will not be able to have any children in the future. Years later, Danny, Laura and Chris are saved from a horrific accident by the blond man's (revealed to be named Stefan) intervention. The unnamed man shows up moments later. Both Danny and the blond man attack but Danny dies of several gunshot wounds, before Stefan kills the man and tells Laura what to say, like years ago at the grocery store. He promises to return soon and tell more, but due to mistakes, he doesn't return until a year later, wounded, in an isolated stretch of winter woods. Laura and Chris are able to treat him at a doctor they locate in the phone book, but must battle unknown assassins shortly thereafter. The group hides out in a small motel. Stefan recovers and finally tells his story. He was born in 1909, making him 35 years old. He is from Nazi Germany in the year 1944, and is part of secret time traveling experiments, sending agents to the future to uncover ways to change the outcome of World War II. Stefan had previously arrived in an alternate version of 1984 and had seen Laura, who was a quadriplegic because of Dr. Markwell's drunken errors during her delivery. However, despite her disability, she wrote beautiful books of poetry which inspired Stefan to renounce his mission, and travel to difficult parts of her life to change them. However, his superior Kokoschka became suspicious of him and followed him, sending the assassins into the future to learn of their path. With the help of Thelma, who has become rich as a comedienne and actress since her sister's death, they gain many supplies they need. Fat Jack, an arms dealer, supplies them with guns and Vexxon nerve gas. With the aid of modern computational technology, Stefan is prepared to go back to his time. He uses the nerve gas to kill the five men on duty at the time and disposes their bodies six billion years in the future. He makes a jump to see Winston Churchill and convinces him that the institute containing the time machine must be bombed; Churchill agrees. Stefan also makes a trip to Adolf Hitler, to convince the dictator of various threads that must be cleared up, in reality sabotaging the German war effort. While he is gone, Laura and Chris, in an empty patch of rain washed desert, are attacked by more Nazis, as records of a police stop have been discovered. Stefan returns to find Laura and Chris dead. He works around the time limit of the machine by sending Laura a message to save them. Despite this, Chris and Laura still have to battle all four men themselves. The second cylinder of nerve gas proves invaluable. It is Laura who eventually kills all four men pursuing them, as she protects Chris as best she can. In the long months that follow, Laura and Chris are questioned by the police. They soon believe a story of 'drug dealers' who wanted revenge. Laura backs up her story by turning over Fat Jack, something she was going to do anyway (he does not blame her, due to his personal beliefs). Stefan, who had been hiding with Thelma, comes to live with the two again. After even more time, Laura finds herself falling in love with him. 

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The book opens with four separate stories that quickly weave themselves together and become different viewpoints of one overarching plot. First: Janice Capshaw, a nighttime jogger, is pursued and then killed by a pack of mysterious and nightmarish beasts while she is jogging along the beaches of a coastal town named Moonlight Cove. Second: Twenty-two days later, Sam Booker, an undercover FBI agent, arrives in Moonlight Cove to investigate the suspicious deaths of Janice Capshaw and eleven other people. Third: Chrissie Foster, an eleven-year-old girl, witnesses her parents in a physically altered state- part human and part beast- and then must flee for her life, narrowly escaping death at the hands of her 'beast parents'. And fourth: Tessa Jane Lockland, sister of Janice Capshaw, arrives in Moonlight Cove to uncover the secret of her sister's unexplained death. The search for the truth begins. Sam is searching for an all encompassing explanation for everything strange and deadly that is taking place in Moonlight Cove. Tessa is searching for the reason behind the cover up of her sister's death. And Chrissie is searching for someone, anyone, who can save her from her parents and any other creature that might be trying to kill her. At the very beginning, Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie are all hunted- albeit separately- by the mysterious beasts and each survives their encounter. Chrissie believes the creatures are aliens invading the earth and taking over the bodies of humans. Sam has no idea what they are, but discovers that Thomas Shaddack, a brilliant computer scientist, is converting the citizens of Moonlight Cove into something unexplained. He also learns that the local police are involved in a massive cover-up of the strange and deadly events that are happening in Moonlight Cove. Early on in the story, Sam and Tessa meet and realize that in order to survive they must work together. However, they find it nearly impossible to discover what is going on, because they are being pursued non-stop by both the police and the beast- humans. Because of a letter sent to the FBI by a resident of Moonlight Cove- Harry Talbot- offering information about the deadly events in town, Sam knows that he must find Talbot. Harry is a Vietnam vet, who was terribly injured during the war, and now uses a wheelchair. He has not yet been converted into one of the beasts. Because he spends most of his time watching the people of Moonlight Cove- through his telescopes- Harry has learned what is going on in town and also learns that Thomas Shaddack and the local police are behind it all. Regardless of numerous attempts to kill them, Sam and Tessa learn the full story behind the secret of Moonlight Cove. Thomas Shaddack had created a means whereby a person can be converted into a super-human no longer susceptible to illness, injury, fatigue, or emotion. But the conversion has an unforeseen side-effect. From their super-human form, many of the people begin to regress into the deadly human-beasts that are prowling around the town. These creatures exist for no other reason than to kill others and to stay alive, themselves. In the end, Shaddack descends into complete madness, his plan goes terribly wrong, most of the townspeople revert into super-creatures, and death fills the streets and homes of Moonlight Cove. The town has literally become a place of 'kill or be killed'. Seeing that nothing can stop the town's descent into chaos, the Chief of Police, Loman Watkins, vows to kill Shaddack, which will automatically and simultaneously kill every converted person in the community. As part of each 'conversion' Shaddack has placed a microchip inside each person that will kill them should Shaddack's heart stop (i.e. should he be killed). The novel concludes quickly and very dynamically. Shaddack is killed, most of the town dies, Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie survive and the FBI is sent in to clean up the mess. 

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Recently retired teacher Jim Ironheart (aptly named) risks his life to save lives. In Portland he saves a young boy from an oblivious drunk driver in a van. In Boston he rescues a child from an underground explosion. In Houston he disarms a man who was trying to shoot his own wife – and he is not just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. He gets “inspirations” and knows he must hurry to wherever prompted. He rushes off to hail a cab or catch a plane, dropping whatever he’s doing at the moment, much to the surprise of those around him. He has no idea where these visions come from or why, but he believes that he must be some sort of God-sent guardian angel with a heavenly gift. Reporter Holly Thorne was in Portland to write a less than exciting piece on a school teacher who has recently published a book of poetry full of poems which Holly finds are pure transcendental garbage – but such is Holly’s lot in life. She is a fine writer but is failing at her job because she is filled with too much integrity and compassion to be a good reporter. As she is leaving she witnesses Jim rescuing the child from the drunk driver and felt there was something fishy in Jim’s explanations of how he started running for the child before seeing or hearing the van coming. She discovers there have been 12 last-minute rescues reported over the last three months in other newspapers by a mysterious Good Samaritan named Jim with blue eyes. Holly is intrigued by Jim and his intense but cold blue eyes – eyes which burn with a passionate, cold fire, hence the novel’s title. Holly decides to follow this humble yet elusive savior on his next “mission.” Unbeknownst to Jim, she rapidly follows him to the airport and boards a United Airlines DC-10 plane bound for Chicago. She decides to confront him and learns about Jim’s strange but extraordinary powers. Jim tells her that he has been sent by God to save a mother and a child on the plane – he does not know why God has chosen these two in particular, but he does know that they must change seats or they will die in the horrific plane crash about which he has been sent a vision. Holly is struck by Jim’s belief that he has some magical power, sent by God no less. Holly takes a more cynical view on things and decidedly argues how ridiculous such thoughts are. She questions why “God” would choose to let these two people live, and allow 151 other passengers to die, as Jim has foreseen. Surely there are much more worthy people aboard, and why would God even have the plane crash at all? Holly presses Jim to do much more than just tell the couple to move, but that he should warn the pilot and maybe save everyone aboard. Jim initially refuses, and decidedly refuses to question his visions. He tells Holly simply that God sends him, and he only follows the instructions – to do anything beyond that would be to somehow go outside God’s will. Who else, he asks, could be sending him visions to save lives precisely at the right time? Holly reasons with him, and convinces him that there is no good reason for Jim (or God) to let anyone die needlessly. The plane, however, is damaged beyond saving and still crashes, but the number of fatalities reduces from 151 to 47. After the crash, Holly manages to gain Jim’s confidence. They are attracted to each other, but Holly cannot help but be curious about Jim’s mysterious visions. She decides to discover exactly how, why, and who, just as any reporter would naturally want to know. Yet the more she pries, the stranger things get. Nearly all Jim’s childhood memories are completely missing, except that he knows his parents died when he was 9 at his grandparents’ ranch. He only knows very vague details about everything from his childhood, and gets angry when Holly questions him. She begins to see that his strange abilities are linked to his childhood and lack of memories from then. She hears him whisper in his sleep continuously for several nights, “There is an Enemy. It is coming. It’ll kill us all. It is relentless.” She and Jim start to have identical terrifying nightmares surrounding the old mill from his grandparents’ ranch, and during one of these “nightmares” they are both completely conscious and experience violence while fighting some eerie force coming at them from the walls and ceiling – needless to say, they are convinced the force behind it all is definitely not God, nor is it benign. Holly unquestionably decides they must go back to the ranch to find the source of everything, though she is fearful of what they will find. Jim is at first reluctant, but as they near the ranch, he becomes more and more convinced that the being is something wholly great and powerful – something not of this world. Once inside the windmill’s creepy tower room, the alien reveals itself from the adjacent pond, at first through sounds analogous to church bells and then an entrancing display of dancing colors and exploding lights. The being then starts to magically use a pen and paper to make words appear, and later manifests as a voice. It calls itself THE FRIEND who has come to them from ANOTHER WORLD. When asked why, it says, “TO OBSERVE, TO STUDY, TO HELP MANKIND.” Holly asks why, then, it attacked them the previous night, to which THE FRIEND replies that that was the work of its other half: THE ENEMY. When asked about the bells and lights, it says that it does that “FOR DRAMA?” Holly asks why the certain individuals are chosen over others, and THE FRIEND gives replies that one will cure all cancers, one will become a great president, one will become a great spiritual leader, et cetera. While Jim is wholly enthusiastic and pleased, Holly cannot believe the answers, for it does not make any logical sense and the answers seem trite, fantastical and childish to her. Holly questions THE FRIEND far and deep about Jim while he is out of the room. All the answers continue to be too predictable to believe, and it finally answers her nagging with threats and then, most shockingly, with the words “I,” “MY,” and, “ME.” At that moment, it is discovered that Jim is actually himself the source of both THE FRIEND and THE ENEMY, that it is he who is causing the nightmares and not God or some alien force. After Jim’s parents died, the 9 year old became obsessed with a book about an alien in a pond next to a windmill – he became so obsessed that the child never grew up until one day an adult-in-body Jim ran away and started a presumably normal life. Holly helps Jim deal with his past and the two begin a new life together. 

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Bestselling mystery writer Marty Stillwater was recording himself one day when he realized that he was saying "I need..." repeatedly. When he rewound the recording he found that he had been unconsciously repeating "I need" for over 7 minutes. Marty was tense that whole day, when he put the kids to bed though he calmed down considerably and was finally consoled. Meanwhile, the Killer is roaming the streets before his job. He goes into a bar and leaves with a prostitute to go to a motel. He has sex with her and then murders her because she cannot assuage his frustration. He proceeds to kill his targets and returns to his hotel. That night, still restless, he is drawn for some reason towardsTopeka. Suddenly, he starts saying: The Killer is attracted like a magnet by some force he doesn't understand to the Stillwater residence. On his way he kills several people; an old couple for a set of clothes and a gas station clerk to steal food and money. When he breaks into the Stillwater house he sees a picture of Marty and believes it to be himself. He observes books authored by Marty and decides they are his. He sees the pictures of the daughters Emily and Charlotte and Marty's wife Paige, he then decides he wants to be the father and husband. He attempts to write a book but cannot and in his frustration he destroys the computer. Marty was quite upset about his fugues (a break in one's memory) and so went to see a doctor. The doctor attributed it to stress. When Marty comes home he finds things misplaced and his computer smashed. The Other then enters and accuses him of being an impostor. He menaces Marty who shoots him twice in the chest, but the Other is unfazed. The fight catapults them over the banisters leaving the Other seriously injured but he gets away. Marty's family returns home, and Marty sends them to their neighbour's house. Soon after, the police arrive. Cyrus Lowbock, the detective, interrogates Marty and doesn't believe his story, insinuating it is a publicity stunt. Marty and his wife refuse to cooperate and the police leave. The Other's body has rapidly recovered from his injuries but the effort leaves him ravenous. After consuming massive amounts of food he returns to get Paige and the girls back from Marty who he believes has stolen them. He manages to get the daughters from the neighbour's house, but Marty sees him and gives chase. The car crashes and the girls escape but the Killer flees again. Drew Oslett and Karl Clocker, two operatives of a clandestine government agency are sent to retrieve the Killer (referred to as "Alfie") They discover the bodies of the two seniors and Alfie's tracking device. A message from their agency leads them toward the People magazine article on Marty Stillwater and they discover his connection with the Killer. They meet a contact who might help them find Alfie. To maintain their cover they decide the Stillwaters have to be terminated to look like a murder/suicide and Alfie has to be brought in. Meanwhile, the Stillwaters flee to a cabin in Mammoth Lakes and prepare to defend themselves against attack by The Other. Paige hides under a rock to ambush The Other, but unpredictably he rams his car through the cabin. The Stillwaters then flee to an abandoned church. Here Marty is shot and Paige and the girls are trapped. As The Other prepares to kill them, Drew and Karl track him down. Drew kills The Other and is then killed by Karl who has turned against the agency. He rescues the Stillwaters, provides them with new identities, a new home and evidence to bring the agency down. He explains that cloning and genetic engineering were used to create a breed of elite assassins, with Marty's tissue samples accidentally becoming involved in creating Alfie. After a few months Marty mails the evidence to the authorities from an anonymous name and the Stillwaters begin their new lives. 

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Harry Lyon is a cop who embraces tradition and order. His partner, Connie Gulliver, is Harry's exact opposite. Harry does not like the messiness of her desk, her lack of social polish or her sometimes casual attitude towards the law. Connie often urges him to surrender to the chaos of life that is the 1990s. "Look, Harry, it's the Age of Chaos," she tells him. "Get with the times." And when Harry and Connie have to take out a hopped-up gunman in a restaurant, the chase and shootout swiftly degenerate into a surreal nightmare that seems to justify Connie's view of the modern world. Shortly after, Harry encounters a filthy, rag-clad denizen of the streets, who says ominously, "Ticktock, ticktock. You'll be dead in sixteen hours." Struggling to regain the orderly life he cherishes, Harry is trapped in an undertow of terror and violence. For reasons he does not understand, someone is after him, Connie Gulliver and the people he loves. 

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The story begins with a thirty-two-year-old Los Angeles police officer named Jack McGarvey. Jack is caught in a shootout at a gas station. He kills the gunman but is badly injured and spends months recovering in a hospital. When Jack returns home, the McGarveys receive a letter stating that Jack has inherited the Quartermass Ranch in Eagles Roost, Montana from his late partner's father, Eduardo Fernandez. While Jack was recovering from his injuries, Eduardo was experiencing strange events in Montana. He sees glowing lights in the trees and hears strange sounds. One night he discovers a massive black circle and suspects it is a portal opened by an alien. Soon after, he notices wild raccoons watching him and intruding in his house. The raccoons all perish strangely, and Eduardo contacts the local veterinarian, Travis Potter. The veterinarian performs an autopsy which does not reveal anything conclusive as to the cause of death. Squirrels and birds now spy on him. Although frightened, Eduardo eventually challenges the traveler to come to him in its true form instead of using animals. One night he hears a shambling on his porch. With shotgun in hand, he opens the door and sees the traveler piggybacking on his late wife's corpse, taken from the family plot on the ranch. Travis Potter discovers Eduardo's body and an autopsy determines he suffered a heart attack. Jack moves into Eduardo's ranch with his wife, Heather, and son, Toby. They are looking forward to a quiet life in Montana, away from big city crime and a safe place for Toby to attend school. The family adopts a golden retriever named Falstaff, who adores Toby. The McGarveys soon experience strange things. Both Travis Potter and attorney Paul Youngblood hint that something unusual may have occurred just before Eduardo's death. All three McGarveys have similar recurring dreams of an entity offering promises of happiness if they would let it into their minds, but each senses the promises are false and vehemently refuses the offer. Heather thinks of it as the Giver. The Giver hypnotizes Toby through electronic devices and attempts to communicate with Jack through Toby. The family eventually reveals to one another the similarity of their dreams and different baffling events. The Giver becomes impatient and bolder, having never previously met resistance with any species. It attempts to trap the family during a blizzard by disabling their vehicles and phone lines. Jack leaves on foot to ask a neighbor to drive his wife and son away from the house, while Heather and Toby remain at the house armed with gasoline cans and guns. Although they barricaded the house, the Giver is able to break in. It appears in two separate forms, each riding a corpse from the ranch's family plot. Heather discovers that bullets do not damage the Giver riding Eduardo's corpse, so she sets the house on fire, hoping the flames will destroy the creature. She shoots at the second corpse, damaging it, and realizes the Givers cannot move easily without their mounts. The first Giver has walked its corpse through the fire, and although it continues to pursue them, Heather sees that the fire has consumed part of it, allowing her some hope. Toby traps the Giver in his mind by tricking it into thinking he accepts its offer, while actually immobilizing the Giver and allowing him, his mother, and Falstaff to escape the house. Jack is picked up by a snowplow driver, Harlan Moffit, and sees the house on fire when they pull in the driveway. Heather and Toby are carrying gas cans up the back stairs, and Harlan assists the family when Jack tells him of an alien invasion. Toby states that he cannot continue to hold the Giver captive for long, and that the Giver is actually in the caretaker's house. They carry the gasoline cans to the caretaker's house and see a third entity, riding another corpse, held immobile by Toby's imagination. The main body of the Giver is further back in the house and is a massive being which sprouted off the three smaller extensions of itself. Toby continues to hold the being's will in place, and the adults pour gasoline and set the building on fire. After the authorities have taken everyone's statement, Toby tells his father that, at the very end, the Giver sprouted off a few small worms that tried to escape by boring into the wood. He is not sure if any of them survived, and Jack says that they will leave that to the scientists and authorities to handle. A few weeks later, the family moves back to Los Angeles. 

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Spencer Grant is a man with a tainted, yet shadowy past with a lovable dog, Rocky, who together embark on a quest to find a life in a woman named Valerie Keene, whom he meets in a nightclub. Grant and his dog come back to the club later to find out that the woman is late for work. When Grant attempts to find her at her home, a SWAT-like team bombards the place, sending Grant into confusion. Grant is now determined to find Valerie. He searches for her in Las Vegas and is pursued by a secret government agency who are also looking for Valerie. He gets caught in a storm in the Nevada desert and is injured. He is rescued by Valerie and she helps Spencer's injuries. Meanwhile, Roy Miro, a high-ranking official in the agency, is the main antagonist who has been looking for Valerie for months. He and the agency use a satellite to find Spencer and Valerie's location in the desert. Roy and some agents get into a helicopter and corner them into a shopping center. Spencer and Valerie take hostage a helicopter and fly out of Nevada to Colorado to visit the house Spencer had his childhood in. When Spencer was 14 years old he heard a noise in the night and went out to the barn in the backyard to investigate. Inside the barn he found his father torturing a woman and Spencer found a gun but only wounds his father. His father was later sent to a mental hospital. Roy takes Spencer's father out of the hospital and flies to the Colorado house to confront Spencer and Valerie. Spencer's father shoots Roy in the barn, which only paralyzes Roy. Spencer then fatally shoots his father while he and Valerie leave the barn. They use a satellite heat beam to disable the other agents while leaving the house and starting a new life together helping a resistance group against the government agency. Category:Dystopian novels Category:Novels by Dean Koontz Category:1994 American novels Category:1994 science fiction novels Category:Alfred A. Knopf books Category:Books with cover art by Chip Kidd 

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Chyna Shepard is a college student visiting the family of her friend, Laura Templeton, for a long weekend. Chyna, who was abused and neglected by her mother as a child, finds that the Templeton house provides something she has yearned: acceptance. This comes to a violent end when serial killer Edgler Vess breaks into the house in the night and methodically kills all of the occupants except Laura and Chyna. After discovering that Laura has been tied up and raped, Chyna leaves, promising to return. Before she can intervene, Vess kills Laura and takes her to his motor home. Chyna hears Laura screaming and runs upstairs, intending to attack Vess with a knife. Unaware Laura is dead, Chyna sneaks aboard the motor home and finds her friend's corpse. Before she can escape, Vess drives away. Chyna hides in a back room, planning to escape at the earliest opportunity. When Vess stops at a gas station, she sneaks out of the motor home and looks for a payphone. Chyna secretly watches Vess boast to the gas station clerks that he is holding a young girl, Ariel, prisoner in his basement, before he kills them and drives away. She feels compelled to follow Vess and help free Ariel, taking a clerk's car. Chyna passes Vess while traveling through a state park and intentionally crashes her car into a redwood tree. While Vess gets out to investigate, Chyna sneaks on board the motor home. However, unbeknownst to Chyna, Vess glimpses her. Fascinated, he decides not to kill her immediately, wanting to see what she will do. Eventually, they arrive at Vess's remote house. Vess watches as Chyna leaves the motor home. She enters the house to find a catatonic Ariel locked in a room in the basement. Before she can free Ariel, Vess attacks Chyna in the kitchen, punching her unconscious before binding her with a chain. He taunts her for a while, revealing details about his past crimes. Obsessed with the "intensity" of any particular experience, sensory and existential, Vess styles himself as a "homicidal adventurer" and has killed continually since childhood. He offers to allow Chyna to live if she aids him in tormenting Ariel out of her catatonia. After Vess leaves for work, Chyna manages to break away from the table to which she is chained and slam her chair into a wall. She releases Ariel from her prison. Vess has trained a pack of deadly Dobermann pinschers to guard his property and kill anyone attempting to get in or out. Dressed in Vess's dog-training clothing, Chyna sprays ammonia on the dogs and makes it to the motor home with Ariel. Soon after, Chyna sees a police car on the road and pulls over to signal it, only to discover that the driver is Vess, the local sheriff. In the ensuing showdown, Chyna rams his police car, but he rolls clear and uses a shotgun to disable the motor home, causing it to tip over. Chyna and Ariel escape the wreck, but Vess catches up to them and knocks Chyna to the ground while Ariel continues on, distracting Vess long enough for Chyna to pull a lighter from her pocket. She uses it to ignite Vess's gasoline-soaked boot. She rolls away to safety just before the pool of gas surrounding Vess ignites. After catching up to Ariel, she turns and watches as Vess burns to death. A passing motorist stops to help them. Some months later, Chyna adopts Ariel and meets a nice man. 

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Millions of years ago, "The Mad One", also known as Ialdabaoth or God, took over the earth in a sort of cosmic lawsuit. The original creators left behind one last member of their race, Dira, to tell humans the truth about their god, but the dominant traditions throughout the ages denounce Dira as evil. Now, the world is coming to an end and Nathan Stack, the latest incarnation of a long line of humans going back to Lilith’s husband, is revived by Snake (aka Dira) to make the journey to the mountain where God lives. He is the only human capable of confronting him and putting the Earth out of its misery through the summoning of what is referred to as the Deathbird. The story also contains a few side plots, presumably about Nathan Stack or previous reincarnations of him. These stories tell of people that have had to make difficult decisions, allowing loved ones to die. In one such story, his mother wants him to "use the needle" and kill her, ending her pain. This situation is repeated at the end of the story, where Nathan Stack must "use the needle" and end the pain of the planet. http://harlanellison.com/review/deathbird.htm#deathbird 

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The novella was based on a short story by an acquaintance of Balzac, Albéric Second, as Tim Farrant has demonstrated.A. Second,“Histoire des deux bassons de l’Opéra”, Le Siècle, 17–18 August 1841 Its original title was to have been "Le Parasite". Sylvain Pons, a musician in a Parisian boulevard orchestra, has a close friend in another musician from the orchestra, the German pianist Wilhelm Schmucke. They lodge with Mme Cibot but Pons – unlike Schmucke – has two failings: his passion (which is almost a mania) for collecting works of art and his passion for good food. Schmucke, on the other hand, has only one passion, his affection for Pons. Pons, being a gourmet, much enjoys dining regularly with his wealthy lawyer cousins M. and Mme Camusot de Marville, for their food is more interesting than Mme Cibot's and full of gastronomic surprises. To remain on good terms with the Camusots and to repay their favour, he tries to find a bridegroom for their unappealing only child Cécile. When this ill-considered marriage project falls through, Pons is banished from the house. The novella becomes a novel as Mme Camusot learns of the value of Pons's art collection and strives to obtain possession of it as the basis of a dowry for her daughter. In this new development of the plot a bitter struggle ensues between various vulture-like figures, all of whom are keen to lay their hands on the collection: Rémonencq, Élie Magus, Mme Camusot – and Mme Cibot. Betraying his client Mme Cibot's interests, the unsavoury barrister Fraisier acts for the Camusots. Mme Cibot sells Rémonencq eight of Pons's choicest paintings, deceitfully stating in the receipt that they are works of lesser value. She also steals one for herself. Horrified to discover his betrayal by Mme Cibot and the plots that are raging around him, Pons dies, bequeathing all his worldly possessions to Schmucke. The latter is browbeaten out of them by Fraisier. He in turn dies a broken-hearted man, for in Pons he has lost all that he valued in the world. The art collection comes to the Camusot de Marville family and the vultures profit from their ill-gotten gains. 

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In order to help Ken become accustomed to the world outside of the Lost City of the Jedi, Luke brings him to Tatooine to experience the "Droidfest." Although they are attacked by Tusken Raiders and bounty hunters hoping to get the reward Trioculus set for Ken, they manage to escape to Bespin with Han's housewarming gift, a housekeeping droid named Kate. Meanwhile, Zorba the Hutt, the father of Jabba, upon learning of his son's death, flies to Cloud City in order to claim Jabba's casino. Although the governor, Lando Calrissian, who has taken over the casino, refuses the claim, he agrees to bet the city and the casino on a game of sabacc. With Zorba marking the cards in an ultraviolet paint that only Hutts can see, Lando lost the city and left after warning Han and Leia. After a series of mishaps, Leia is captured by Trioculus' guards and brought to his factory on the planet and Ken is captured by Zorba. When Zorba learns that his son's murderer is in the custody of Trioculus he proposes a trade. Trioculus, however, won't give up his queen, and although has his stormtroopers ready to aid him, is defeated by Zorba's police force. Ken, however, is able to escape his jailers through a use of a Jedi mind trick and is reunited with Han. Luke is also able to rescue Leia and all are taken aboard the Millennium Falcon before Zorba destroys Trioculus' factory. Thinking that Leia was killed, he taunts Trioculus before freezing him in carbonite. The rebels leave the planet with Han wondering if he'll ever be able to ask Leia to marry him. 

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When a demonstration of a "decoy" Human Replica Droid of Leia goes wrong and the droid shoots a scientist, Han and Leia are forced to fly him to his home planet of Chad to get treatment. When they reach the planet's hospital a hurricane is ravaging it. After Han is able to bring the scientist to the doctors, he is trapped by falling rubble caused by the storm. When Leia eventually saves him, he reveals that the experience scared him that he wouldn't be able to reveal his big plans. Upon leaving the scientist in the doctors' care, Han proposes to Leia and they plan on eloping at Hologram Fun World, an amusement park. With the help of the new owner of the park, Lando Calrissian, they plan a wedding and visit many hologram attractions, including a trip through the Alderaan of Leia's memories. While they are at the park, one of Zorba the Hutt's spies in the park tells him that Leia is alive and he plans on capturing her and killing her on Tatooine as she did to his son. With some help, he manages to capture her during a magic show and take her to his ship, with the carbonite-frozen body of Trioculus, for the trip to Tatooine. Zorba's ship, however, is captured by the Moffship of Grand Moff Hissa. When they discover Trioculus is still alive, he is quickly unfrozen and only spares Zorba's life when Zorba reveals where Leia is. Hoping to turn Leia to his side, Trioculus drops Zorba into the Pit of Carkoon into the mouth of the Sarlacc. While Trioculus makes plans to marry Leia, Han and Lando, joined by Luke, Ken and the Human Replica Droid of Leia are able to infiltrate the Moffship and plan a rescue operation. They rescue Leia and are able to replace her with the Human Replica Droid, who goes to the wedding in Leia's place. While the Millennium Falcon escapes, the droid's lasers pierce Trioculus' heart. As he lay dying, unbeknownst to anyone, Zorba crawled out of the Sarlacc, as no creature in the universe can digest a Hutt. 

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The game takes the player inside the virtual life of either Genghis Khan or one of his archrivals. The player must arrange marriages, father children, appoint family members to governmental positions, and fight in order to conquer the Old World. Armies must be drafted and soldiers must be trained if the player is to rule the lands from England to Japan. 

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As Trioculus lay dying he made Grand Moff Hissa promise that he would make Luke Skywalker and the rest of the Rebels pay for killing him. Meanwhile, at the Rebel base, they realize that Triclops, while sleepwalking, goes through files at the base and transmits them, through an implant on his tooth, to Imperial probe droids which are evading defenses. Leia proposes that a defense probe be built from plans found at the Lost City of the Jedi. These plans happen to be from Ken's homework assignments, prompting him and Luke to return to the city. While there, Ken's caretaker Dee-Jay and the other droids tell them about a decoy transport to the city that now leads to an underground sea of lava and also warn them of a prophecy by Supreme Prophet Kadann which says > When the Jedi Knight > Becomes a captive of Scardia > Then shall the Jedi Prince > Betray the Lost City. While they return to the Rebel base on Yavin, Zorba the Hutt has a meeting with the Prophets of the Dark Side in their space station Scardia. He tells of the grand moffs betrayals and plans of making Trioculus leader once again. When the Moffship is captured, they are put to trial, and surprised to see Zorba as the main witness. All of the moffs are sentenced to certain death, with Hissa's being the cruelest, as the loyalest supporter of Trioculus. Back on Yavin 4, Luke decides to give Triclops false information about the decoy transporter. In order to stop the information leak altogether, Luke, Ken, and Chewbacca went to the planet Arzid to find a mushroom to deactivate the implant. While there they are captured by Imperial stormtroopers and brought to the Prophets. Kadann, using the false information from Triclops, sends Hissa to his death in the decoy transport and threatens that he will send Luke if Ken doesn't betray the location of the real transport. He also promises Ken that he will reveal who his father was. With that motivation, Ken betrays the city and is brought with the Prophets to it. There Kadann reveals that Ken's father is Triclops meaning his grandfather was the Emperor. Not wanting to believe them and crying, Ken is told that he will be bred to be the new Emperor and will know the Dark Side of the Force. Meanwhile, Luke, finally able to get free of his guards and rescued by Han and the others, is able to sneak into the city through a steam vent. He rescues Ken, but not before the city is shut down by the Imperials and an earthquake destroys the main computer. Although Luke and Ken are able to reach the surface, Kadann and the other prophets are trapped in the city. Ken is able to come to terms with his parentage, but is unable to speak to his father about it, as Triclops manages to escape and evade capture in the forests of Yavin. The story ends with Leia, preparing for her wedding and seeing a vision of Han with their two children, wondering if they are twins. 

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The game follows the basic premise of the Lone Rangers mythos. The player takes control of the Lone Ranger, a former Texas Ranger whose comrades were murdered by an outlaw named Butch Cavendish. While the game's instruction manual deviates from the original radio serials and TV series by claiming that Dan Reid was John Reid's father, the game itself remains true to its source material by identifying one of the murdered rangers as the Lone Ranger's brother. Using an overall storyline that is similar to the film The Legend of the Lone Ranger, the game's ultimate goal involves rescuing the U.S. President from Butch Cavendish and his gang. One particular stage in the game (Area 6) involves the Lone Ranger saving his former fiancée Clara (a character created for the game) from a gang of ninjas working for Cavendish. 

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Always in search of uncharted exploitation territory, Lewis turns his attention this time to the then-controversial topic of birth control. Given the nature of the film, it is surprising that it contains practically no overt sexual situations beyond a couple suggestive dissolves. One of Lewis's more multifaceted productions, The Girl, the Body, and the Pill follows the subject through multiple perspectives. We see a liberal high school teacher (Pamela Rhea) advocating for sex education as a means of promoting proper hygiene among her rapidly developing adolescent students. Her efforts to promote planned parenthood meet with fierce opposition from the schoolboard as well as the parents of several of the students. Actually, one parent in particular, the hyperprotective puritanical father (Bill Rogers) of a virginal daughter whose boyfriend wants to go all the way, is the loudest voice to oppose such education. The film additionally follows the exploits of the school's most promiscuous student, Randy (Nancy Lee Noble), and that of her considerably more promiscuous single mother (Valedia Hill). As part of her co-ed hygiene curriculum, Pamela has begun recently to encroach the subject of sex, despite lack of official backing from the schoolboard. Soon, the school principal expresses disapproval of this curriculum, forcing Pamela to continue to conduct the classes in her own home. The daughter of the chief opponent to this hygienic education meanwhile struggles with balancing her love of her boyfriend with maintaining her prudence. A lustful group of teenage boys, one of whom is currently engaging in relations with Randy, discuss their collective attraction to Pamela. Upon further investigation, Pamela becomes outraged that the local pharmacies refuse to dispense birth control to teenage girls out of principle. Randy, meanwhile, is in danger of running out of her contraceptive pills, prompting her to steal them from her mother and replace them with saccharine tablets. Lucky for her, as Randy's "boyfriend" decides to share his good fortune among his group of oversexed teenage male friends one night in the back seat of his car, in spite of Randy's resistance. While all this goes on, Rogers, who clearly states his dissatisfaction in his own marriage and frustration over the fact that their daughter was an unplanned pregnancy, sets out to gather support for his cause from some of the other parents. Of course, who does he contact first but Randy's mom. It doesn't take long before he hypocritically succumbs to the temptation of the truck-stop vixen, and carries on an affair. Confident in the effectiveness of her birth control, Valenia thinks nothing of protection during this triste until, lo and behold, she becomes pregnant. Meanwhile, Rogers' daughter stands her ground and maintains her virtue, prompting her boyfriend to hook up with Randy to satisfy his burgeoning needs. An attempt to rape Pamela, an abortion, and a series of redemption-seeking sequences closes out the film. 

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A man (Steve Coogan) who runs an alibi agency, a service for adulterous husbands and wives that provides airtight alibis, runs into trouble with his latest client. In order to remedy the problem, he has to rely on a very enticing woman (Rebecca Romijn), his assistant/partner. The plot thickens when he switches identities with one of his clients (James Marsden) for a weekend, and the client's girlfriend dies in an accident. With the police, an assassin, and a jealous ex-boyfriend to run from, he discovers that he will need all the ingenuity he can muster to survive. 

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A captive woman, forced to breed mutant children, gives birth to a stillborn. She is then killed by mutant leader Papa Hades for being unable to provide healthy offspring. Later, scientists working in an area in the New Mexico desert, designated Sector 16, are attacked by the mutant Letch. A group of National Guardsmen in training are sent into the desert to resupply the scientists, who were working for the United States Department of Defense on installing a surveillance system (implied to be a result of the events in the first film). The soldiers arrive to find the camp apparently abandoned, and outside radio contact impossible due to the topography. When the radio operator, Spitter, picks up a faint distress call, Sergeant Jeffrey "Sarge" Millstone organizes a search and rescue mission, leaving behind Napoleon and Amber. The search party discovers the mutilated body of a scientist in the hills, while Amber and Napoleon pull another dying scientist out of the portable toilet. On her way to join the group, Amber is attacked by the mutant Stabber, but a returning Mickey wards him off. Just as Napoleon catches up, Mickey is pulled into a bolt-hole and killed. At the same time, the remaining troops are attacked by Letch, and Sarge is accidentally killed by Spitter's friendly fire. Napoleon and Amber reunite with the group, and Spitter is killed by an unseen mutant sabotaging his rappelling gear as the others try to lower him down the hill. With their remaining gear stolen, they are forced to try to find another way down. The remaining troops soon locate their commanding officer, who has clearly become unhinged from recent events. He warns them of the mutants' plans to capture women for breeding and kill everyone else. He then commits suicide after telling them the only way down the hill is through the mining caves. After the group kills Stabber, Missyis captured and taken into the mining caves by Chameleon. Chameleon attempts to rape her, but Missy fights him off, only to be captured by Hades, who scares Chameleon away and savagely rapes Missy himself. The remaining troops attempt to rescue Missy, with the exception of Stump, who is killed by Letch while attempting to climb down the hill without ropes. After being separated from Crank and Delmar, Napoleon and Amber cross paths with Chameleon, who they manage to kill. They later locate a non-violent mutant named Hansel, while escaping Grabber. Grabber is killed by Crank after shooting Delmar. After reuniting with Napoleon and Amber, Delmar dies from his wounds, and Hansel leads Napoleon, Amber, and Crank to the exit. Along the way Crank is killed by a trapped crate of dynamite that he attempts to take with him, incidentally triggering an explosion. After killing Letch, Napoleon and Amber find the captive Missy, and all three fight Hades, whom they manage to kill as well. The three leave the mines, but a text blended into the screen states that the National Guard trainees remain missing and Sector 16 is still not acknowledged to exist. As the survivors prepare to depart, they are watched by an unknown mutant using their surveillance equipment. 

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In the 11th century three men flee from an Italian city and make their way to the Holy Land to take part in the First Crusade (AD 1096-1099). 

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In a suburban neighborhood, Paul Gold lies in his bedroom in a coma caused by a traumatic car accident. He is cared for by his mother, Esther, who in tending him closely has distanced herself from her husband Howard and young daughter Julie. Trying to elicit her mother's attention, Julie enters Esther in a local radio contest, in hopes of winning a brand new car. Meanwhile, after years of putting his job first, Jim Train feels his family, especially his efficient wife Susan, no longer needs him. He tries to reconnect with his son Jake (Alex House), on the edge of puberty, but the youth is preoccupied with romantic fantasies about his younger sister's twelve-inch plastic doll. After Jim is skipped over for a promotion, he stops going to work, claiming that a bomb threat was called into his office. Feeling unappreciated by his family, he convinces Esther and Julie to let him help them win the car. The Trains' neighbor, Helen Christianson, feeling older and less desirable, tries new products to keep her feeling young. She succeeds only in alienating her husband, who loves her as she is. Helen's good friend, Annette Jennings, in the midst of a messy divorce, struggles to provide financially for her two daughters. Sam, the older tomboyish daughter, is desperate to go off to camp that summer. Sam's younger sister suffers from mental disabilities and requires special schooling, which her father, Annette's ex-husband, refuses to pay for. Annette is also mourning the loss of Paul, with whom she was having a relationship. Randy, the neighborhood's landscaper, is coping (poorly) with his own younger brother's death in the same car accident that grievously injured Paul Gold. Annette's ex-husband comes to visit his daughters. He says that he wants to take Sam on a holiday. Annette refuses because Sam is not interested in spending time with her father, and her ex-husband does not want to care for the younger daughter. Sam overhears their argument and runs away from her father when he tries to talk to her at the park. Soon she bumps into Randy, who tells her that her mom instructed him to pick her up. Randy takes Sam to a remote cabin in the woods and keeps her there, not allowing her to call home. He calls her 'Johnny', after his late brother. After what appears to be three days, Randy starts driving back to the suburb, to recreate the night when the characters' lives intersected. When the beer he asks Sam to hand him does not explode, he appears to realize that the person in the back seat is Sam, not his brother. Esther eventually gets to the final two slots in the radio contest, only to pull out at the last moment after nearly three days of physical and emotional taxation. Julie becomes angry and runs off. Jim, angry at what he feels is an inadequate second-place prize, becomes violent and wrecks the area. He gets chased off by Bobby, Helen's son, who works as the mall security guard. Esther, who finally realizes how much she has neglected her daughter, goes home and tearfully suffocates her son. Jim returns to his home, and Randy lets Sam go home. Helen almost cheats on her husband, but eventually returns home without having taken that step. A flashback reveals the cause of the car crash: Randy, Paul, and Randy's younger brother Johnny were traveling in a car after a gig that Paul's band played. Johnny gave Randy and Paul beers which he had shaken, and they exploded when opened, on Paul who was driving. Another car, carrying Julie and Bobby, came from the opposite direction, speeding to rush Julie home after an impromptu tryst so she would not get in trouble for violating her curfew. Both drivers became distracted, both cars had to swerve, and Paul's car crashed and flipped over. The guilt that has consumed both Randy and Julie throughout the film, is shown to have originated from each taking blame for the crash. Each acknowledges their heightened understandings of the effects of these events in their lives and their choices, and lastly, the interconnectedness of these families. 

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In Northern Norway during the 1860s, a little girl named Dina accidentally causes boiling lye to spill over her mother at the laundry, causing her mother's death. Overcome with grief, her father refuses to raise her, leaving her in the care of the household servants. Dina grows up wild and unmanageable, with her only friend being the stable boy, Tomas. She summons her mother's ghost and develops a strange fascination with death as well as a passion for living. Family friend Jacob (Gérard Depardieu) encourages Dina's father to hire a tutor, Lorch, who introduces her to the cello. When Jacob asks for Dina's hand in marriage, Dina refuses. Her outraged father slaps her, prompting Dina to attack him. Knowing that Lorch and Dina have grown close, her father retaliates by sending Lorch away, devastating Dina. Unable to come to terms with Lorch's departure, Dina nearly kills Lorch in a fit of insanity. When Dina (Maria Bonnevie) is old enough, she marries Jacob and moves to Reinsnes, a port he runs with his mother, Karen, and his stepsons Niels and Anders. Niels dislikes Dina's wild ways, and the fact that she has taken over accounting duties at Reinsnes. As Dina's eccentric tendencies become even stronger, Jacob suffers gangrene poisoning after breaking his leg when he falls off the roof of his mistress' house while trying to fix a leak. As Jacob does not appear to be getting better and worsens, Dina takes him on a sled to the top of a cliff and pushes him off to his death, hoping to end his suffering and send him to a better place. Jacob's death reunites her with Tomas and the two have a passionate affair. Several months later, she gives birth to a baby boy that she names Benjamin, presumably her offspring with Tomas. She then learns of Lorch's death when the latter bequeaths her his cello. Some years later, as a child, Benjamin accidentally sets fire to the barn. Dina falls in love with a courageous, handsome Russian named Zhukovsky (Christopher Eccleston) who rushes into the burning barn to save her beloved horses. It turns out Zhukovsky had seen Dina several years ago in Bergen and was smitten by her, and has come to Reinsnes to court her. However, he leaves suddenly and Dina forces herself on Tomas. Niels, drunk, rapes a servant named Stina. When Dina finds out, she issues an ultimatum to Niels: marry Stina or leave for America. Neils will not countenance marrying a servant, but cannot afford to leave for America, since Dina has confiscated his savings, giving a third of his money to Stina. Zhukovsky then returns to Reinsnes to take a prisoner back to Bergen. When a drunken and penniless Niels staggers into the house, Dina announces that he too will soon be leaving, to America. Niels then decides to ask a now well-to-do Stina to marry him, but she refuses. Overcome with despair, Niels hangs himself. Dina's father then announces to Dina that Zhukovsky is an anarchist involved in a plot against the King, and is to hang. A distraught Dina rushes to Bergen to try and exonerate Zhukovsky. But when she visits him in prison and her visiting time is up, Dina attacks the guards, who then brutalize her, causing her to lose her baby with Zhukovsky. On the way back to Reinsnes, she is saved by Anders, who stops her bleeding. Her appeal is successful, however, and Zhukovsky is released, though no one has seen him since. Several weeks later, Dina nearly drowns while teaching Benjamin how to sail but is miraculously saved by Zhukovsky who is on a nearby steamer. In her near-death state, she dreams that she kills Zhukovsky when he announces that he is leaving her again. Dina then comes to and asks if Zhukovsky is going to leave her again. Zhukovsky says he will always be leaving her, though he says he will always be coming back. 

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Two sailors are patrolling the Walmington-on-Sea pier. They grumble that no one will be coming down to look after it for two weeks. They laugh as they realise the Home Guard will have to take over each night for a week. The platoon are discussing their latest assignment. Frazer will carry them over to the pier in boat, because he has the best Naval experience. Jones will provide food for the night, Walker will bring along a bottle of whisky and Wilson's brought some acid drops - clearly it will be a "gastronomic orgy", according to Wilson. However, when Mainwaring attempts to teach them how to get into a boat, he and Frazer have a falling out and it is determined that Mainwaring will row them over, so it takes longer than expected to get Wilson and Frazer across. As Pike is the last man across, he will be in charge of securing the boat. Mainwaring quickly commandeers the only hammock, but Wilson persuades him that they should take it in turns, but Mainwaring will go first. Pike secures the boat, but leaves the food in it, so he goes to fetch it. However, he comes back dejected: he had tied the boat to the thinner telephone cable rather than the sturdier electricity cable (because he "didn't want to get electricity-fied"), but the boat is now gone, with all the food on it, and has disconnected the telephone. The platoon are cut off. Jones suggests using the window to signal Morse code to the shore to get help. ARP Warden Hodges spots it and rows out in a children's paddle boat to try to get them to switch it off. The boat sinks, and Hodges is stranded with the platoon. To calm him down, Walker gives him his bottle of whisky. Pike spots a crane game where the prize is chocolate. Frazer is the only one with pennies, but they fail at each attempt, so Walker steals some chocolate from inside the machine. All but one are cardboard, to the great distaste of everybody - except Frazer, who quickly scoffs his genuine bar of chocolate. Late in the night, the platoon are woken to Hodges' drunken singing. Mainwaring comments to Wilson "well what do you expect from a tradesman?" It is decided that Hodges should have the hammock so he can get some sleep. At about 5:45 am, Jones sees an unusual object through the floorboards, and alerts Mainwaring, who identifies it as a mine. They wake everybody up and they try to hook it. Hodges scoffs at their attempts and tries to hook it himself. However, he falls in the water again, and, since the mine turns out to be magnetic, has to remove his metal helmet to prevent it following him. The platoon set up the Lewis Gun and fire at it with their rifles. However, the mine edges closer to Walmington. A soaking Hodges joins them and, using his expert bowling skills, manages to blow up the mine with a wooden boule. 

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The Sorceress of Castle Grayskull is woken one night by a mysterious magic sword that leads her to a glowing portal known as a 'Time Gate'. Recognizing the sword as the 'Sword of Protection', the Sorceress summons Prince Adam and Cringer the tiger to Castle Grayskull and sends them through the portal to find the person destined to possess the sword. Finding themselves in the otherdimensional world of Etheria, Adam and Cringer stop at an inn for lunch and discover Etheria is ruled by an evil intergalactic army known as the Horde. When some Hordesmen soldiers cause trouble in the inn, Adam stands up to them and gets into a fight which he wins with the help of an archer named Bow, who tells Adam that he and his friend Kowl are members of the 'Great Rebellion'. As word of the fight reaches the Horde's leader Hordak, Bow and Kowl take Adam and Cringer to the Rebellion's base in the Whispering Woods. They meet the other Rebels, including their leader Princess Glimmer, tree people the Twiggetts, and Madame Razz, the comically inept witch, who arrives on her talking Broom to reveal that the Horde are threatening to enslave the villagers unless the Rebels responsible for the fight in the inn give themselves up. Bow is willing to do this, but Adam and Glimmer convince the group that they should fight back to save the villagers instead. As the Horde, led by Force Captain Adora, start taking away the villagers, they are attacked by the Rebels, aided by Adam and Cringer in their secret identities as He-Man and Battle Cat. He-Man confronts Adora and the Sword of Protection glows in her presence, revealing that she is the one he's looking for; unfortunately, this distraction allows the Horde to knock He-Man out and capture him. Madame Razz uses divination to discover that the Horde have taken He-Man to their prison complex on Beast Island and the Rebels head there to attempt a rescue. In the prison, Adora interrogates He-Man and agrees that the sword seems to be meant for her, to which He-Man retorts that he is to give it to someone who serves good rather than evil. As it turns out Adora thinks the Rebels are evil and the Horde the rightful, benevolent rulers of Etheria, although she admits to not knowing much about life outside the Horde's base. When He-Man dares her to see for herself what life on Etheria is really like, Adora says she'll think about it. The Rebels arrive on Beast Island and manage to get into the prison to find He-Man, only to get captured and imprisoned themselves. Luckily, Kowl manages to elude capture and frees He-Man, who then frees the others and destroys the prison. In the meanwhile, Adora has ventured into the towns outside the Fright Zone and sees first-hand the cruelties Etheria's citizens are forced to endure at the hands of the Horde. As Hordak and Shadow Weaver discuss how He-Man is too powerful a threat to ignore, they are confronted by Adora wielding the Sword of Protection. She has discovered how cruel the Horde truly are, but Shadow Weaver enchants Adora into a mystic sleep that will make her forget what she learned and takes the sword, planning to learn its secrets. Later, Hordak shows the Horde his latest weapon the Magna-Beam, a willpower-fueled transporter that will allow him to send the entire Rebel base into exile forever. However, none of the Horde's captives have sufficient willpower to fully charge the machine. He-Man sneaks into the Horde base looking for Adora, but Adora once again thinks he's the villain and arrests him. Hordak then has He-Man put in the Magna-Beam to charge it overnight. Later that night, Adora has nightmares about He-Man's fate and hears a voice calling her name. She discovers the Sorceress talking to her through the Sword of Protection and convincing her to help He-Man, whom the Sorceress reveals is not only the good guy but also Adora's twin brother. Instructed to hold aloft the sword and say "For the Honour of Grayskull!", Adora is transformed into the superpowered She-Ra, Princess of Power. After she rescues and revives He-Man, the pair destroy the Magna-Beam and make their getaway on Adora's horse Spirit, who in She-Ra's presence is transformed into a talking winged unicorn named Swift Wind. She-Ra then reveals that she is He- Man's sister, leaving him confused as he's sure he doesn't have a sister. When She-Ra explains that she was told by the 'woman in the sword', He-Man uses the Sword of Protection to contact the Sorceress and she explains everything. When Adam and Adora were born to King Randor and Queen Marlena, Eternia was invaded by the Horde. Unable to defeat the combined might of the Eternian army and the magic of Castle Grayskull, Hordak plotted to demoralize them by kidnapping the newborn royals, aided by his favorite pupil (and He-Man's future archenemy) Skeletor. Although the kidnapping was interrupted by Man-At-Arms, Hordak escaped with Adora and ultimately fled through a Time Gate. The Sorceress was unable to discover which dimension Hordak took Adora to, so she cast a spell that wiped all memory of Adora from the people of Eternia except for herself, Man-At-Arms, King Randor and Queen Marlena. Thus Adam was raised unaware of his sister's existence. Convinced by the Sorceress' story, He-Man happily accepts She-Ra as his sister. Returning to the Rebel camp as Adam and Adora, the Rebellion accept Adora into their ranks after learning that Adora was mind-controlled into serving the Horde. The Rebels have also discovered that Queen Angella, rightful ruler of the kingdom of Bright Moon, is being held prisoner on nearby Talon Mountain, so Adam and Adora volunteer to rescue her. As He-Man and She-Ra, they defeat Queen Angella's jailer Hunga the Harpy, free Queen Angella, and reunite her with her people (including her daughter Glimmer). Adam takes Adora back to Eternia to reunite with their parents, but Hordak has found out that Adora is with the Rebels and pursues them through the Time Gate. Finding himself back on Eternia, Hordak goes to his old base on Snake Mountain and discovers that Skeletor is now the principal villain of Eternia. Skeletor is not pleased to see his old mentor. Upon learning that Hordak is after Adora, Skeletor agrees to help him to be rid of him. Magically disguised as cooks and with Hordak hidden inside a giant cake, Skeletor and his henchmen manage to infiltrate the royal palace and kidnap Adora. As Man- At-Arms, Teela and He-Man reassure the distraught king and queen that they will save Adora, Skeletor betrays Hordak and forces him back to Etheria, planning to ransom Adora himself. However, Adora manages to outwit her captors and, reclaiming her sword, deals with the villains as She-Ra before running into the rescue party. As He-Man introduces She-Ra to the others and helps her to convince them that Adora is safe, Skeletor is left bemoaning "A female He- Man! This is the worst day of my life!" Adora decides to return to Etheria to aid the Rebellion, a decision accepted by her family, and the Sorceress sends Adora and Spirit back to Etheria, telling them they can use the Sword of Protection to summon aid from Eternia should they ever need it. Adam and Cringer tag along, offering to "help [Adora] get the Rebellion off to a big start". As He-Man and She-Ra, the twins help the Rebels liberate Bright Moon, learning more about She-Ra's powers in the process (including using empathy to communicate with the wild animals of the Whispering Woods and healing Swift Wind when he's shot by the Horde). He-Man and Battle Cat then return to Eternia, while She-Ra and Swift Wind resolve to stay until all of Etheria is free. 

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A synopsis prior to the release of the film stated: :"Caotica Ana is the story-journey of Ana during four years of her life, from 18 to 22. A countdown, 10, 9, 8, 7... until 0, like in hypnosis, through which Ana proves that she does not live alone, that her existence seems like a continuation of other lives of young women who died in a tragic way, all at the age of 22, and who live in the abyss of her unconscious memory. This is her chaos. Ana is the princess and the monster of this feminist fable against the tyranny of man." 

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When a new girl moves to Highland Park High School, she encounters a difficult clique and dramatic situations. 

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Opening with a wedding between two young Communists, officiated by a CP functionary, under the poster of Mao-Tse Tung, the bride suddenly spears the man and escapes, chased by the police. This is the end of 'Cataratte'/'Cataracts', a 10-year-old action B-movie projected in an open-air cinema in honor of Bruno Bonomo (Silvio Orlando), a cockeyed film producer, who did some trash movies starring his wife Paola (Margherita Buy) in the 1970s. He also has two young sons loved by him and his wife. During this homage, a young woman presents him the script of a movie she wants to direct with his help. Slated to start on a project celebrating the return voyage of Columbus just after his discovery of America, Bruno is stunned when his director, Franco Caspio, quits because of the low budget. Suddenly Bruno has no projects, no financing and no leverage. Added to his many troubles, Bruno's wife asks for a separation even though they have two sons. She wants to pursue her artistic options. Bruno reads the offered script and realizes that it's a thinly disguised account of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian media magnate who promoted his political career through his TV stations. Knowing this could draw political and legal heat, not to mention difficulty for finding funding; but the young woman convinces Bruno to start production on The Caiman. The film shows how secret money, slush funds and Swiss bank accounts start Il Caimano's career as a big building developer. She hopes that the film will influence voters in the elections slated for 2006. Starting to fall in love with the writer, Bruno meets her lesbian partner and her son 'made' in a 'journey' to the Netherlands. The production of the film is rife with problems, including the defection of the main actor Marco Pulici (Michele Placido), but the plot of The Caiman also deals with the domestic issues between Bonomo and Paola until their final separation, with the compromises made for their two sons. Despite growing evidence that his film will never be completed, Bonomo decides to shoot the last scene, which shows the political nucleus behind the film: in it, Silvio Berlusconi (played by Nanni Moretti himself) enters the tribunal room to hear the ruling against him (see Legal investigations of Berlusconi), which sentences him to seven years of jail. Notwithstanding the sentence, Berlusconi/Moretti exits the tribunal while a crowd throws debris at the judges, including a Molotov cocktail. The whole, crude scene is not only an allusion to Berlusconi's judiciary controversies, but also to his powerful ability to communicate, which (in Moretti's view) led Italian people to support him anyway despite his controversial past. 

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Three young hipster men who share an apartment in Bangkok are chasing after women, but are unaware that it's the same woman they are after. 

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Strange things start happening when separate twists of fate bring each of three friends, Big, Dan and Beam, into contact with three strangers – an old woman who tells prophecies, a little girl who sells garlands on the street and a young woman named Aom. What none of them realize is that not only is there a connection between the three females, but also between the guys themselves and their destinies. But it starts to become clear that one them is fated to die. But which one? And why? 

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On a future Earth (c. 2080 CE) overwhelmed with severe difficulties related to overpopulation, a portal is discovered that leads to a parallel world. Jim Briskin, campaigning to be the first Black president of the United States, believes that the new "alter-Earth" could be colonized and become a home for the seventy million people that are being kept in cryopreservation. Known as bibs, these are people - mostly non-caucasians - who decided to be "put to sleep" until a time when the overpopulation problem is solved. Briskin is a social conservative, who does not support the Golden Doors of Bliss orbital brothel, and opposes widespread abortion access. There are two dominant US political parties, the "Republican Liberals" and the "States Rights Conservative Democrats" who run CLEAN, a racist frontgroup that opposes Briskin's candidacy, although higher-income white American voters support him. Terraforming becomes a pivotal election issue, until a warp drive malfunction in a "'scuttler" tube results in the discovery of an apparently uninhabited alternate world, an 'alter-Earth' where Homo sapiens either never evolved or lost in competition with other early hominids. In this case, the point of divergence appears to have occurred between one and two million years ago, as Homo erectus, also known as Sinanthropus, Pithecanthropus or Peking Man, is the dominant species. In reference to the latter designation, the explorers refer to the indigenous hominids of this world as "Pekes." There is a hasty initial colonization attempt. The minimum time period necessary for all of the tens of millions of "bibs" to emigrate is estimated to be twenty years. In order to cut this down to 5 years the rift is temporarily closed so a new power supply can be installed which will theoretically quadruple the width of the rift. When this action is completed, however, it is discovered that one hundred years has elapsed in the parallel world. During this time the conjoined twin businessman George Walt, who had run the Golden Doors of Bliss satellite brothel, had emigrated into the parallel world during initial colonization and set himself up as a "wind god". He spent those hundred years teaching and filling in technological gaps in the Peke's world as well as learning many new ideas from them. He also apparently assisted in sabotaging the colonization effort, as it would not exactly be in his own best interest were word to leak out that he was merely a mutated Homo sapiens. After all the decades-consuming preparations have been completed, however, George Walt eventually sets a trap so that whenever the rift eventually re-opens, the "Pekes" can power it from their side and keep it from closing. This procedure allows the Pekes to begin an invasion of Earth, but they abruptly depart en masse when it is finally revealed, as George Walt originally feared, that their wind god is actually just a wind bag; that is to say, he's just another lying, deceiving, untrustworthy member of the species Homo sapiens. The colonization attempt from Earth is thereby aborted, and Briskin, being newly elected, is left at the story's end to deal with the consequences during his next two presidential terms. 

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The novel opens with a lunar find by the Apollo 17 astronauts, which is suppressed. Tom Broadbent (who first appeared in Preston's novel The Codex) is riding in the New Mexico desert when he hears gunshots coming from Tyrannosaur Canyon (a fictional canyon east of the Rio Chama Gorge, on Mesa Viejo, and north of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert). Following the sound, he comes upon an old prospector who has been shot by a sniper. He gives Tom a notebook just before he dies, and Tom rides off on his horse to find help. The murderer, Jimson Maddox, is furious that the notebook is gone by the time he reaches the body; he has been hired to retrieve it at any cost. He does, however, find an interesting rock sample. When Tom returns to Tyrannosaur Canyon with the police, the prospector's body has disappeared without a trace. The notebook is filled with numbers, a code Tom is unable to decipher. He brings the book to Wyman Ford, a monk in training at a nearby monastery. Ford is a retired CIA analyst and he takes the notebook to try to decipher it. Ford discovers that the numbers are not a code but a sequence of ground-penetrating radar readings. When processed, they form the image of a fully intact Tyrannosaurus. The rock sample Maddox found turns out to be a fragment of the Tyrannosaurus. Maddox's employer, Iain Corvus, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, convinces a lab assistant, Melodie Crookshank, to examine the sample in secret. Corvus intends to steal her research, acquire a permit to excavate the Tyrannosaurus, and thus secure tenure at the museum, as well as wealth and fame. Melodie discovers tiny particles within the sample which she calls "Venus particles". Upon making this discovery, Melodie calls Corvus to describe it to him, and the NSA hears the call. They initiate a black op led by J.G. Masago to cover up evidence of the particles, kill any witnesses, and retrieve the specimen. Meanwhile, Ford goes into the desert to look for the dinosaur. At the same time, desperate to recover the notebook, Maddox kidnaps Tom Broadbent's wife, Sally. He takes her to an abandoned mine to use as a bargaining chip, forcing Tom to hand over the notebook. Now that Maddox has the notebook, however, he intends to kill Sally so he can not be identified. She manages to break free, Tom rescues her, and the two of them escape into the desert on foot, pursued by Maddox and his rifle. Masago infiltrates the museum and kills Corvus, stealing the samples and his research. But Melodie, realizing previously that Corvus would try to steal the credit from her, had made copies of everything and hid them, along with more samples of the dinosaur. When she sees that he has been murdered and that his work is missing, she realizes she is the next likely target. Her only chance is to complete the research and post it to the Internet, so killing her would no longer serve the purposes of a cover-up. During her final research, she discovers that the 65-million-year-old Venus particles are still alive. They are a type of virus that destroys the cell structure of reptiles, evidently introduced to the earth by the Chicxulub meteorite. She posts her findings to the web to show the world. Back in the desert, the black ops team has tracked Ford down, and Maddox is gaining on Tom and Sally. They manage to overpower Maddox and kill him, retrieving the notebook, and Ford leads them out of the canyon in an effort to evade the government assassins. Trapped in an old Anasazi cave, they discover the partially excavated Tyrannosaurus rex just before Masago's team converges on their location. Ford repeatedly reminds the team commander, Hitt, that Masago is ordering them to kill unarmed American civilians on American soil without first explaining to them why, which convinces Hitt and the rest of the team to turn on him. They then force Masago to tell them about the lethal Venus particles, which had also been found on the moon, thus establishing their extraterrestrial origin. As the entire team takes off in the helicopter, Masago breaks free and kills the pilot before being restrained by Ford and Broadbent. Despite the co-pilot's attempts, the helicopter crashes into a cliff. Though Tom and Sally manage to escape first and rather quickly, Tom heads back into the burning wreckage to save Ford and Hitt. With Sally's help, the four manage to get away just before the helicopter explodes, killing Masago, the co-pilot, and all of the other soldiers on board. By the time they arrive with news about the dinosaur's location, Melodie's research has spread across the Internet. All those involved are made famous, including Robbie Weathers, the old prospector's daughter. The Smithsonian Institution funds a program to research the Venus particles and the dinosaur itself, which is christened by Robbie and named after her. At the reception, Ford makes an off-hand remark where he speculates that the particles may have been intentionally developed by an alien race, so as to destroy the dinosaurs and allow humans to begin their evolution. 

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In the story, Schlemihl sells his shadow to the Devil for a bottomless wallet (the gold sack of Fortunatus), only to find that a man without a shadow is shunned by human societies. The woman he loves rejects him, and he himself becomes involved in guilt. Yet when the devil wants to return his shadow to him in exchange for his soul, Schlemihl, as the friend of God, rejects the proposal and throws away the bottomless wallet besides. He seeks refuge in nature and travels around the world in scientific exploration, with the aid of seven-league boots. When overtaken with sickness, he is reconciled with his fellow men, who take care of him, and in regard for his sickness do not look for his shadow. Finally, however, he returns to his studies of nature and finds his deepest satisfaction in communion with nature and his own better self. 

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Air is the story of a town's fashion expert Chung Mae, a smart but illiterate peasant woman in a small village in the fictional country of Karzistan (loosely based on the country of Kazakhstan), and her suddenly leading role in reaction to dramatic, worldwide experiments with a new information technology called Air. Air is information exchange, not unlike the Internet, that occurs in everyone's brain and is intended to connect the world. After a test of Air is imposed on Mae's unprepared mountain town, everyone and everything changes, especially Mae who was deeper into Air than any other person. Afterwards, Mae struggles to prepare her people for what is to come while learning all about the world outside her home. 

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At the end of the previous novel, A Ship of the Line, after attacking and severely damaging a superior French squadron with HMS Sutherland, Hornblower had to surrender his ship to the French. He and his surviving crew are imprisoned in the French-occupied Spanish fortress of Rosas on the Mediterranean Sea. From the walls of Rosas, Hornblower witnesses an English raid leading to the final destruction of the French ships he immobilised. Soon afterwards, Hornblower is told that he is to be sent to Paris to be tried as a pirate for his previous actions, including the capture of a battery and some coastal vessels using a ruse of war. Hornblower, his first lieutenant, Bush, who is still recovering from the loss of a foot in the fighting, and his coxswain, Brown, are taken away in a carriage by an Imperial aide-de-camp. The carriage becomes stuck in a snowstorm on a minor road close to the river Loire, and part of the escort leaves to get help from Nevers, the next town. Hornblower and Brown overpower the remaining guards and steal a small boat on the river. Taking Bush with them, they set out downstream, but the river is in spate, and the boat eventually capsizes in some rapids. Hornblower and Brown carry Bush towards the nearest building, which happens to be the Chateau de Graçay. The Comte de Graçay, a member of the old French nobility who has lost three sons in Napoleon's wars, and his widowed daughter-in-law Marie, welcome them and protect them from the authorities, who eventually abandon the search thinking them drowned. The party spends the winter as guests of the Comte and prepare for an escape in late spring. During these months, Bush recovers and learns to walk with a wooden leg. Hornblower, Bush and Brown build a new boat to continue their voyage downstream. Meanwhile, Hornblower and Marie have a short but intense love affair. Springtime comes and the river is in perfect condition for travel. Disguised as a fishing party, the escapees make their way to the port city of Nantes. There, they change their disguise to that of high-ranking Dutch customs officers in French service, using uniforms made for them by Marie and the staff of the Chateau. They manage to recapture the cutter Witch of Endor, taken as a French prize the year before. Manning it with a prison work gang, they take the ship out of the harbour and rendezvous with the British blockading fleet. Here, Hornblower learns that his wife Maria had died in childbed; his son, Richard, survived and was adopted by his friend Lady Barbara, widow of Admiral Leighton and sister of Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. Returning to Portsmouth, Hornblower, in common with any other captain who has lost his ship, faces a court martial for the loss of the Sutherland. However, he is 'most honourably' acquitted by the court and finds himself a celebrity for his exploits in the Mediterranean and his daring escape from France. He is received by the Prince Regent (the later King George IV), who makes him a knight of the Order of the Bath and a Colonel of Marines (a sinecure providing worthy officers with extra income). Together with the money from prizes taken while he was captain of the Sutherland and from his recapture of the Witch of Endor, he is finally financially secure and free to court and marry Lady Barbara. 

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In France just prior to the French Revolution, Queen Marie Antoinette (Nina Foch) asks her cousin Noel, the Marquis de Maynes (Mel Ferrer), to uncover the identity of "Marcus Brutus", a dangerous pamphleteer rousing hatred of the aristocracy. Meanwhile, André Moreau (Stewart Granger), a nobleman's bastard, kidnaps his beloved Lenore (Eleanor Parker) to keep her from marrying another man. Afterwards, Moreau learns that his father is the Comte de Gavrillac. While traveling to meet his parent, Moreau runs into Aline de Gavrillac (Janet Leigh), the Queen's ward, when her carriage breaks down in the road. They are strongly attracted to each other, but Moreau's ardor suddenly cools when he learns that she is his half-sister. He hides that information from her, partly because of sympathy after he learns the Comte de Gavrillac has recently died. By chance, de Maynes encounters Marcus Brutus, who turns out to be Moreau's best friend, Philippe de Valmorin (Richard Anderson). A master swordsman, de Maynes provokes de Valmorin into a duel, then toys with his inexperienced opponent before finally killing him. Enraged, Moreau attacks, but does no better than his dead friend. After de Maynes easily disarms him several times, Moreau chooses discretion over valor and flees for his life, vowing to kill de Maynes the same way he slew de Valmorin. Chased by de Maynes's henchmen, led by the Chevalier de Chabrillaine (Henry Wilcoxon), Moreau hides out in the commedia dell'arte troupe in which Lenore performs. Forced to disguise himself as the character Scaramouche, he discovers a hidden talent as a performer. Burning for revenge, Moreau seeks out de Maynes' fencing instructor, Doutreval (John Dehner), and trains diligently in secret for weeks, while also performing with the troupe. However, de Maynes appears during one such training session, and they fight for a second time. Moreau is still overmatched, and is saved only by Aline's unexpected arrival, enabling Moreau to escape (with Doutreval's assistance). Moreau decides to seek out Doutreval's teacher, Perigore (Richard Hale), taking the troupe to Paris for that purpose. There, Dr. Dubuque (John Litel), a deputy of the new National Assembly, seeks his help. The aristocrats in the assembly are systematically killing off the deputies representing the common people by provoking them into duels. Moreau is not interested, until Dubuque mentions that de Maynes is one of the duelists; then he eagerly accepts the seat of a deceased deputy. Each day, he shows up at the assembly to challenge de Maynes, only to find his enemy absent on trivial but official duties, arranged by Aline and Lenore working together to protect the man they both love. However, other nobles in the National Assembly are eager to fight the newcomer, challenging him on a daily basis. Moreau wins every time. In the meantime, de Maynes becomes engaged to Aline. Overhearing de Maynes' intention to confront Moreau that night, Aline persuades him to take her out instead. At the suggestion of de Chabrillaine, they attend a performance of the De Binet Troupe, where Andre seizes his opportunity for revenge. The two men engage in a prolonged duel (reputedly the longest in screen history at about seven minutes) that ranges throughout the theater and finally back onto the stage itself. At the end, Moreau has de Maynes at his mercy, helpless as Philippe de Valmorin had been, but something he cannot explain stays his hand. Moreau stalks off, leaving de Maynes bloodied but alive. Later, Moreau learns from Philippe's father (Lewis Stone) that his father is not the Comte de Gavrillac, but rather the old Marquis de Maynes, the Comte de Gavrillac's friend; Noel, the man he could not kill, is his half-brother. He then realizes that he is not related to Aline after all, so they can be married. Lenore, after giving him her blessing, consoles herself with a certain Corsican officer. 

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Magic Sword takes place in an unnamed world, which is being threatened by the dark lord Drokmar, who has control over an evil crystal known as the "Black Orb", which would allow him to rule over the world. In order to prevent this from happening, the hero, known as the Brave One, must scale to the top of the 50-floor tower in which Drokmar resides, known as Dragon Keep. At the game's end, when Drokmar is defeated, the player has the option of two endings: Destroy the Black Orb, or to take control of it, becoming the new dark lord. 

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Lone Wolf learns that the evil god Naar has created an evil doppelganger of himself, the champion of the forces of good on Magnamund. A cat and mouse game between the two warriors ensues, which leads both across a world claimed by Naar. 

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The central protagonist of Paradise is a young woman called Ann Smith, the daughter of King Rodon, the dictator of the fictional African country of Maurania. Ann is in Europe when she hears that her father is seriously ill, but while she is en route to see him, her aircraft is shot down by rebels. She is rescued, but when she regains consciousness she cannot remember her identity or what she is doing in Africa. 

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The Twelve Colonies are at peace, 58 years before the rebooted series, when an act of religious fanaticism brings together Joseph Adama, a lawyer with ties to the criminal underworld, and wealthy technologist Daniel Graystone, both of whom lost family members. Grief-stricken by the loss of his daughter and fueled by obsession, Daniel sets out to bring her back, using his considerable wealth and sprawling technology corporation. Offered the chance of his own daughter being restored, Joseph wrestles with the notion until he comes face to face with its reality. 

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Two years ago during a trip to Istanbul, Turkey, Nikki Conners, a former member of the Green Beret, witnesses her husband and young child die in a car bomb explosion at the hands of Omega 19, a brutal terrorist organization. A short time after, Jacobson, the head of a mysterious counterterrorism group known as the Phoenix, reveals Nikki's deceased husband, Michael, was a member of Phoenix, and recruits Nikki as she seeks revenge for her family's death. After two years of vigorous training, Nikki completes her final part with the help of Jonah. Her first mission takes her to a countryside in Spain to retrieve a journal that contains all the illegal activities Omega 19 has committed. However, the journal is stored in the villa of Henry Van Clief, an illegal weapons dealer and member of Omega 19. Once she arrives, she witnesses the death of a fellow Phoenix agent at the hands of Van Clief's men. Nikki plants three C4 charges (on the car, in the basement, and in the kitchen, respectively) and detonates them, alarming Van Clief. She gives chase to him to the basement of the villa, where Nikki kills Van Clief and retrieves the journal. During a mission briefing, Jacobson states an infiltration team was sent to Uzbekistan to destroy an Omega 19 base, only to disappear and never be heard from again. The Uzbekistan government refuses to assist Phoenix unless they can recover an artifact that was stolen from them by the British Empire 100 years ago. This takes Nikki to a museum in England to steal the ancient artifact and replace it with a fake. However, as she prepares to acquire the artifact, she informs the team the object she sees is a fake, and Peter, Phoenix's intelligence expert, informs her of Omega 19 agents having acquired the artifact for their own purposes. Nikki kills the escaping terrorists and retrieves the artifact. The team hands the artifact to the Uzbekistan government officials, and they reveal the last known location of Phoenix's strike team, at a military base near a silo. Nikki finds the leader of the missing strike team inside the silo, where the captive tells Nikki of a nuclear weapon Omega 19 plan to release, which is designed to release an electromagnetic pulse in space, wiping out all the computer systems in the United States, leading to an economic apocalypse. As Nikki leaves to stop the weapon from launching, the strike team leader is killed. She apparently kills Serena, one of Omega 19's top female assassins, and cause the missile to explode inside the silo, but this gives her 3 minutes to escape before the place explodes. She leaves the scene in the nick of time. Hiding in a Phoenix safehouse in Hungary, Nikki infiltrates the Magyar Club in Budapest to interrogate and kill Augustin Varga, the Hungarian Minister of Defense, who is a key player in supplying Omega 19 with the doomsday weapon. However, the foreigner assigned to help Nikki was captured, but she kills them and rescues the foreigner. Nikki finds Varga, where he talks about the Stauffer Bank. She kills Varga, and escapes back to the safe house. Nikki travels to the Stauffer Bank in Switzerland to obtain information on the connections between Stauffer and Omega 19. She enters the highly secured Bank via the sewers, where it is revealed $60 million is hidden in the bank, so she is ordered to remove the bonds. During the mission, Serena is alive and well, and this exposes Omega 19's collaboration with Stauffer. Nikki obtains the bonds, but is ambushed by Serena and her operatives. She incapacitates Serena once again and heads back to the States. In San Diego, Nikki suspects a mole in the Phoenix organization, though Jacobson denies the allegations. She is commissioned to investigate Omega 19's current plans inside a shipping company and to find an agent with knowledge of Omega 19. She disguises herself as a scientist as a means to steal a security card from a technician and advance deeper into the shipping company. Serena reappears, and Omega 19 plans to use a nerve agent into a tanker. Nikki enters a lab, where she acquires a sample of the toxin, but as she does this, three technicians accidentally convert the toxin into a liquid form, killing them instantly. Nikki escapes certain death, and disables the tanker carrying the toxin. Angered by this, Serena reveals she was the one that killed Nikki's family. Nikki kills Serena once and for all. Nikki makes her way to Siberia, where Jacobson tells her Michael was ordered to end an Omega 19 operation in Turkey, but pulled him from the mission due to Nikki and her child being present, but not before a Russian government official commissioned Serena to kill Michael. At a secret military base in Siberia, Nikki hands the vials to the doctor, who is revealed to be Peter, the mole in Phoenix the whole time. He betrays Nikki and she is imprisoned, but not before she got infected with a bio-virus. She escapes her confinement, destroys the remaining samples of the bio virus, and escapes Omega 19, passing out aboard the helicopter there after. At an infirmary, Nikki is cured thanks to Phoenix separating the virus from her system and using her blood as an antidote. Much to Nikki's dismay, Jacobson sends a strike team to Omega 19's base in the Caspian Sea. Nikki knocks out Cody and she goes to the Caspian Sea to kill Peter and the Russian for good. Fighting her way through the base, she finds Peter and the Russian, whereas the Russian commanders a prototype android to finish Nikki. She outwits and destroys the android. On the helipad, the Russian programs a much larger version of the android to combat Nikki, but she outsmarts the Russian and destroys the android. The Russian begs for mercy, but Nikki kills him with a headshot. She tells Peter she is leaving Phoenix, but Peter reveals her daughter is still alive. Startled by this, Nikki shoots him in the leg, and as she prepares to kill Peter for betraying Phoenix, Jacobson arrives, and a Phoenix strike team surrounds Nikki, ending the game on a cliffhanger. 

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Ray Pluto has horrid memories of watching his wife and child die in a traffic accident. He's also a cop who's the laughingstock of New York City because his back went out while trying to stop a mass murderer -- who was then shot by a child. For his back, he gets help from a chiropractor. Meanwhile, a teenager hires thugs to kill her father, who's the super in Ray's apartment building. In the same building, two young men are writing a movie script. Ray tries to get past his grief to solve the assault on the super and also return the affections of the chiropractor. 

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Charlie Pope (Miguel Ferrer) is a writer who goes to Mexico to write the ending of the plot for a movie. In Mexico he is attracted to a woman, Natalie (Leilani Sarelle). They go together to a beach where when she goes away to swim, he is attacked and wakes up five days later. When he wakes up he discovers that one of his kidneys has been removed. Rather than return he decides to find the "ring" whose members removed his kidney. He begins by tracking down Natalie (whose involvement with the ring he is unsure of). He returns to United States with Natalie. There he is attacked by Noel (Tony Denison) who tells him that the surgery was a failure and they require his other kidney. He learns that Natalie was involved in the ring. When Steve is about to kill Charlie, Natalie intervenes and Charlie is able to kill Steve and turn away the people who have come to remove his other kidney. It seems the end and Charlie is finishing the script when Detective Topo (Henry Silva) comes to meet him and informs him that he has questioned Natalie and she is innocent. Charlie goes out to meet her and sees that she looks identical to the Natalie he traveled with. In the end we hear a telephone conversation between Charlie and his boss (who had sent Charlie to Mexico) and we overhear that his boss has had a kidney transplant. 

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The novel centers around Joe Carpenter, a man who lost his wife and two daughters in a plane crash the year prior. Joe has never been able to fully cope with their deaths, and on the one year anniversary, meets a strange woman named Rose, claiming to be a survivor of the crash even when none were reported. Rose promises to tell Joe the truth, but just not yet. Finally acknowledging that the story of the crash never fully made sense to him, Joe begins seeking answers as to what really happened on that night, discovering that some may be interested in stopping him even if it means taking his life. There is a large number of suicides of family of the crash victims, which for a while convinces Joe that Rose is somehow getting them to kill themselves with a picture of a gravestone. This leads him to a development involving his dead daughter and a laboratory developed girl, CCY 21–21, with healing powers who looks like his daughter and who wants to live the life she was never able to. This girl can heal, and give hope to anyone she touches. The only weakness is that she cannot heal herself if she is hurt. Rose had been keeping this girl safe until her healing powers and full potential have matured, until Rose gets shot by agents who are attempting to kill her, and the girl. Another experiment, SSW-89-58, has the power to telepathically see, and know things through looking at pictures of places, also being able to control the minds of living beings in that area. The plane crash, as it turns out, was a plan to kill Rose because she had smuggled 21-21 out of the compound. 89-58 was forced to take over control of the pilot, in an attempt to kill everyone on the plane. The plane crashed but the girl and Rose escaped, and were on the run. The novel ends with Joe escaping with Nina (CCY 21-21) and going underground. Rose was shot and dies in a final maelstrom 

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Fear Nothing, told in the first person, follows 24 hours of Christopher Snow's life, as he discovers and attempts to unravel a mysterious and seemingly endless conspiracy centered on a military compound called Fort Wyvern. The book opens with Christopher Snow going to visit his dying father at the hospital. As Snow crosses the hospital to his father's room the lights are thoughtfully dimmed to protect him in his condition. His father's dying words of advice were, "Fear nothing, Chris. Fear nothing". As he leaves the hospital Snow accidentally and serendipitously watches as his father’s body is switched with that of a drifter. Following the people taking the body to the funeral home, Christopher is nearly caught and a manhunt begins. Christopher is chased to the outskirts of town and only his knowledge of the landscape of night keeps him ahead of his pursuers. Later, upon returning home, Christopher finds his father's gun on his bed, and an urgent message on his answering machine to call Angela Ferryman, a nurse and lifelong family friend. Orson, the family dog, is uncharacteristically digging holes in the garden. Christopher stops the pet and brings Orson along with him to see Angela, who reveals a strange story about a night several years ago when she encountered a strange rhesus monkey in her house, a terrifying creature which is recovered by mysterious military personnel. Before more is revealed, Angela is killed while in another room, and Chris barely escapes when unknown assailants set the house on fire. Christopher sets off on his bicycle (with Orson following) to the home of his best friend Bobby Halloway, a surfer who lives in a cottage on the edge of town, near to the sea. Upon hearing Chris’ story, Bobby urges Christopher to leave the mystery alone and continue life as normal. The friends share some food and a few beers (including the dog). Their meal is interrupted by Sasha, Christopher's girlfriend, who calls with a message from another friend of Christopher. The message sends him and Orson off on a race into the mist of the night, where they are followed by a group of mutated rhesus monkeys which are led by a shadowy figure of a half-man, half-beast. As Christopher meets with Roosevelt Frost, an ex-football player who now focuses on a talent of communication with animals, Christopher is again warned off his investigation but now feels compelled to unravel this mystery. Frost hints at unusual, uncommonly intelligent animals escaping from the military base. He cryptically mentions that Christopher is protected by the legacy of his mother. 

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A shapechanging alien has come to Earth with others of his kind to save us from ourselves. After witnessing the slaughter of his entire family by evil aliens bent on stopping him, he takes off on a cross-country race to save himself. He stops at a farmhouse in the middle of the night to "borrow" some money and clothes, and comes across a sleeping boy about his age. Using a drop of blood from an old bandage, he is able to "become" Curtis Hammond, the exact duplicate of the boy. Seconds after leaving the house, the evil aliens arrive and murder the family, leaving only the dog alive. Curtis and the dog escape, and eventually end up at the location of an alien sighting. UFO buffs Castoria and Polluxia Spelkenfelter, twins, recognize Curtis from the news reports of his murder and decide to help him. Eventually he reveals to them his true nature, and they pledge to assist him in the mission he has come to Earth to complete. Together, twins, boy, and dog set off for Nun's Lake, Idaho, the next stop on the twins' itinerary while they decide what to do next. Michelina (Mickey) Bellsong just got out of prison. She has moved in with her Aunt Geneva in order to make a new start, but things aren't going her way. She feels adrift and without direction, just wanting to get through the day. While sunning in the backyard, she is approached by a precocious but disabled little girl. Leilani Klonk has a deformed hand and a deformed leg, which requires a brace. She is more intelligent and articulate than the average nine-year-old, and disarms Mickey with her wit. Mickey and Geneva get to know the girl, and find out that her mother is an insane drug addict, and her step-father is a murderer. He killed her older brother Lukipela, and Leilani is next. Leilani believes that no one can help her, as Preston Maddoc is highly thought of by the academic community. Preston and Sinsemilla, Leilani's mother, bounce across the country looking for UFOs and Leilani knows it's only a matter of time before they bounce back to Montana, which is where Preston murdered her brother Lukipela. Mickey and Geneva vow to find a way to help Leilani, but Preston finds out and takes off with the family in the dead of night. Mickey discovers them gone and sets out after them, determined to save Leilani. Leilani has mentioned that they are headed to Nun's Lake, Idaho to the site of a supposed close encounter and Mickey races to reach the town and find the girl. Mickey arrives and goes to speak to the man who was "healed" by aliens, and finds out that Leilani's step-father hasn't been there yet. She stakes out the house, wanting to find Preston and follow him to Leilani. Preston is alerted to her presence by the man who was healed, who he then murders. He sneaks out of the house and creeps up on Mickey, knocking her unconscious. He carries her into the dead man's house and ties her up, leaving her there and racing back to the campground. Curtis encounters Leilani at the campground in Nun's Lake and knows she's in trouble. He and the twins approach her while Preston's out and convince her to come with them. As they are running for the twins' RV, Leilani is snatched by her step-father and taken to the house he has hidden Mickey in. His plan is to make Leilani watch him kill Mickey, then torture and kill Leilani. When he gets back to the house, he discovers that Mickey has gotten free of her restraints. He dumps Leilani, takes her brace, and starts searching for Mickey in the maze of old magazines and newspapers. Leilani heads into the maze looking for a way out, and she and Mickey find each other. Preston traps them in a corner and lights the newspapers in front of them on fire, planning to listen as they burn to death. Curtis and the twins, now aided by a disillusioned ex-PI sent by Aunt Gen, arrive at the house. Noah Farrell, the PI, shoots Preston Maddoc as he races through the maze searching for Mickey and Leilani. Preston stumbles away, getting weaker and weaker from blood loss and smoke inhalation. Noah and Cass find Mickey and Leilani and the four of them search for an exit. Curtis, in his natural form, comes to their rescue, and they all escape the house. Preston Maddoc is buried under a pile of burning trash and dies. Leilani, Mickey, Aunt Gen, and Noah join Cass and Polly in their quest to help Curtis fulfill the mission he's been sent here for. 

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Dylan O'Conner is traveling with his 20-year-old brother Shep. During a stay at an Arizona motel, he is knocked out and tied up by a doctor, who administers 18 cc'sp. 21 of a golden substance from a syringe with a large- bore hypodermic needle. He informs Dylan that it may have unexpected effects. Jillian Jackson, a traveling comedian, is tied up and chloroformed by the doctor before being injected with the same substance. The two meet after escaping their bonds, just as a large number of SUV's arrive. A brief meeting fight ensues before they escape. While traveling, they are overcome with the urge to do the right thing. Dylan becomes psychometric and Shep reveals an ability to travel from one place to another, referred to as 'folding'. Eventually, they come to share each other's abilities. 

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The basic plot follows New Orleans detective Carson and her partner Michael on the hunt for a serial killer dubbed "The Surgeon". Reports of this killer catch the attention of Deucalion, formerly known as The Monster, who believes his former master and maker, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, has returned. As the body count grows, the case takes a darker turn when Carson encounters Deucalion, pushing Carson and Michael on to the path of a 200-year-old mystery and evil that threatens more than just New Orleans. 

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Mitch Rafferty, owner of a small landscaping business, receives a phone call from someone claiming to have kidnapped his wife Holly. The caller demands that Mitch pay two million dollars or Holly will be killed, and if he informs the police, Holly will be tortured and left to die. When Mitch protests that he doesn't have the money, the caller tells him that if he loves his wife enough, he will find a way. He is told to look across the street and witnesses a man walking his dog get shot in the head. The murder is meant to make Mitch believe that the kidnappers are serious and not individuals Mitch could disobey. Mitch also becomes aware that he is being watched and therefore cannot inform the police of Holly's kidnapping. When the police arrive to tend to the murder, Mitch is questioned by a detective named Sandy Taggart. Mitch does not tell Taggart of the kidnapping, and can sense that the detective believes he may be holding something back. However, Mitch is not arrested and leaves after Taggart officially dismisses him. On arriving home, Mitch finds his house staged to look like he had killed his wife. He finds blood smeared over his clothes in the closet and splattered on the kitchen walls. The phone rings, and the kidnapper verifies Mitch's ideas about the staging. He informs Mitch they have also planted additional evidence that would be difficult for Mitch to locate and remove, but easy for police dogs. The kidnapper then plays a recording of Mitch's session with Taggart, which confirms his earlier belief that the kidnappers have him under surveillance. Mitch is then told to have his cell phone on and remain available for further instructions later in the evening. Unsure if Taggart can be trusted, Mitch lies to the detective when he stops by, claiming Holly had come home with a migraine and was sleeping. Taggart tells Mitch that the victim has been identified as Jason Osteen, Mitch's college roommate, to whom he had not spoken for many years. After Taggart leaves, Mitch takes a lug wrench from the garage to use as a weapon. While in the garage he finds some high-tech spying equipment. Just after this discovery, he is surprised at gun point by one of Holly's captors, and is told to drop the wrench. As the gunman orders Mitch to leave, the lug wrench the captor had picked up gets caught on a stack of Halloween decorations that subsequently get knocked over upon the gunman. During the fall the gunman lands against a wheel barrow that crushes his trachea, breaks his neck, and then he inadvertently shoots himself in the chest. Mitch takes the handgun, another concealed gun from the man's ankle holster, puts the corpse in the back of his wife's car, and decides to visit his parents. Mitch, realizing that events could worsen, arrives at his parents' house. He has no intention of revealing any information about Holly's abduction, but wishes to ease his mind with what could possibly be a final visit, and end on good terms with his parents. His relationship with his parents is not close, due to their harsh and unconventional views on raising children which includes the “learning room”, a sensory deprivation chamber. Mitch speaks briefly with his father, learns his mother is out for the evening, and comes away disappointed with the encounter. The next phone call from the kidnappers comes at 6:00 p.m. As instructed, Mitch visits his brother Anson without informing him of Holly's kidnapping. During this time, Anson receives a call from the kidnappers and becomes aware of the situation. Anson, who had helped his siblings throughout their childhood cope with their parents, offers to give Mitch the two million dollar ransom amount. Mitch is surprised that Anson is financially able to provide this. Anson tells Mitch of a friend, ex-FBI agent Julian Campbell, and drives Mitch to Julian's residence explaining that Julian may be able to provide suggestions learned throughout his FBI career. After arriving at Julian's huge estate, Anson pulls a gun on Mitch and states that he wouldn't give his money to save Mitch, let alone Holly. Mitch learns Anson has worked with the criminals behind Holly's kidnapping and shorted them on their last criminal enterprise. Now, the kidnappers mistakenly believe that Anson will do anything to help Mitch save Holly. Julian informs Mitch that he has never worked for the FBI and has obtained his wealth through the "entertainment industry." Julian has his two henchmen disarm Mitch and take him outside the city to be disposed of. Mitch manages to kill his executioners with the forgotten gun in the ankle holster and returns to his parents' house where he finds them dead. Again, the scene has been set up as if Mitch had killed his parents, although this time, Mitch believes Anson to be behind the setup. Mitch confronts Anson at Anson's house, tasers him, and ties him to a chair in the laundry room. He does not reveal that he knows Anson killed his parents and promises to release Anson if he gives Mitch the two million. Anson eventually gives him the combination to a secret safe in the kitchen where he finds 1.4 million dollars in bearer bonds and cash. Mitch, remembering an earlier conversation with his brother, asks Anson how he really made so much money. Anson informs him of an illegal Internet company run by Julian Campbell that downloads untraceable adult and child pornography. Anson takes great delight in telling Mitch this, because he wants Mitch to know that Holly's ransom money is dirty and realizes Mitch will be reminded of this for the rest of his life with Holly. After hearing the story, Mitch is disgusted and leaves him in the dark laundry room instead of releasing him as promised, knowing that Anson does not like the dark and will be reminded of their parents' learning room. Meanwhile, Holly is being held captive in an attic, trying surreptitiously to pry a nail from the floorboards. The nail is something that she regards as a pathetic weapon, and at first, she works at it merely to have something to focus on. She finally pries the nail free and conceals it without really knowing how she can use such a small device effectively against trained killers. Holly has also learned that one of the kidnappers, Jimmy Null, has become suspicious of the others and killed them. He tells Holly how they had all grown dubious of each other and acted so that they would not kill him. He plans to keep all the money for himself. During this time, she also wins the remaining kidnapper's trust by listening to his stories of visions, inventing a vision of her own, and indicating she might travel with him to New Mexico where their visions take place. Jimmy Null then calls Mitch again - speaking with a different voice - and agrees to the 1.4 million in cash offered. Mitch is instructed to meet them at the Turnbridge house, an enormous mansion on which construction was halted. Before Mitch can leave, Taggart arrives with the news that Anson's name appeared in Jason Osteen's phone book. Taggert also points out inconsistencies in Mitch's earlier story to him. Mitch initially claims his brother is away, but finally confesses the series of events to Taggart. As they are going to see Anson in the laundry room, Mitch tasers Taggart and runs away. Before fleeing, he tells Taggart that he cannot trust anyone else to save Holly, because he loves her too much and time is running out. After buying rounds for a gun he took from one of the executioners, Mitch is chased on foot from the gun store by the police. He steals an SUV from a gas station and goes to the Turnbridge house where he confronts his enemy. The kidnapper tells Mitch that Holly's moment of decision has arrived, and Holly is able to distract the kidnapper with what he believes is proof of her visions and devotion by appearing to have stigmata. Holly's wounds are in fact secretly self-inflicted from the nail. Mitch takes advantage of the distraction and shoots the kidnapper, who is initially protected with a bullet-proof vest. Null then chases Mitch and Holly with a motorcycle but Mitch is able to eventually kill him by firing at his head. The novel ends with an epilogue. It is at the 32nd birthday of Mitch. We learn that Campbell has been murdered in prison and Anson is currently on death row. Mitch and Holly have two children and will eventually have a third, Mitch's business is booming, and Detective Taggart is now a family friend. Category:2006 American novels Category:Thriller novels Category:Novels by Dean Koontz 

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They are stronger, heal better, and think faster than any humans ever created—and they must be destroyed. But not even Victor Helios—once Frankenstein—can stop the engineered killers he’s set loose on a reign of terror through modern-day New Orleans. Now the only hope rests in a one-time “monster” and his all-too-human partners, Detectives Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison. Deucalion’s centuries-old history began as Victor’s first and failed attempt to build the perfect human–and it is fated to end in the ultimate confrontation between a damned creature and his mad creator. But first Deucalion must destroy a monstrosity not even Victor’s malignant mind could have imagined—an indestructible entity that steps out of humankind’s collective nightmare with one purpose: to replace us. 

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After Odd Thomas discovers that his childhood friend Danny has been kidnapped and his step-father brutally murdered, he assumes that Danny's birth father, who was recently released from prison, has kidnapped him. Because of this belief, Odd starts to investigate, and is led through a water tunnel and into an abandoned hotel by his "psychic magnetism," an ability of Odd's to track down who, or what he is visualizing. Inside, Odd finds his friend tied up and strapped to a bomb. Danny informs Odd that his dad did not kidnap him. Instead, Danny recounts that, because of his loneliness from a debilitating bone disease, he called a phone sex line and spoke with a woman named Datura. Danny, having been seduced by this woman, had eventually given up the information of Odd's "gift." Once this registered in her mind, she kidnapped Danny in order to have Odd reveal himself to her. Odd leaves Danny and finds Datura in her room with two thugs, Cheval Robert and Cheval Andre. She orders Odd to show her ghosts. Reluctantly, Odd takes her to the casino in the hotel where he previously saw many ghosts and one poltergeist. Datura insults a ghost, and the enraged poltergeist flings objects at them. At this point, Odd escapes from Datura, returns to Danny, and disarms the bomb. Odd returns to Datura's room and finds a shotgun, which he uses to kill Cheval Robert. Datura finds him by "reverse psychic magnetism"; as they are talking, a mountain lion attacks her from behind. An angry Cheval Andre chases Odd through the hotel, before Odd kills Cheval Andre in a sewer. Odd dies in the sewer, and his spirit visits three of his friends. He comes back to life, however, in front of the Blue Moon Café with no idea how he got there. At first he is dismayed at his survival, as his dearest hope is to be reunited with his soul-mate, Bronwen "Stormy" Llewellyn, in the afterlife. Odd accompanies the Chief Porter to the hotel, where they go back to retrieve Danny from that terrible place. Two months later, Odd makes plans to work in a monastery high in the mountains in an attempt to find peace. 

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Sonora Webster lives with her sister and abusive aunt during the Great Depression. She learns that because of her accidentally letting the cows loose and her suspension from school, her treasured horse Lightning has been sold and she will be placed in an orphanage. Instead, Sonora slips out of the house during the night. She ends up at a county fair and sees a performance by Marie, a diving girl who rides a horse off a platform, and aspires to do the same. Doc Carver, Marie's employer, tells her she is too young but gives Sonora a job as a stable hand due to her ability with horses, and she begins traveling with them. Doc's son Al wins a wild horse in a card game and Sonora names him Lightning. She later surprises Doc by taming and riding Lightning, so he promises to train her as a diving girl if she can mount it while it's moving, which she succeeds after multiple attempts. Marie's regular horse becomes sick, therefore Al decides to use Lightning in the shows. Sonora warns Marie to not kick him, but she ignores the warning and Lightning causes her to fall and dislocate her shoulder. With Marie unable to perform, Al asks Sonora if she can do the stunts. Although she has never dived with Lightning, their first jump is successful. Marie becomes jealous, and as Doc tires of her diva-like behavior, she quits rather than share billing with Sonora. Al develops a romance with Sonora that strains his relationship with his father, leaving after a particularly bad fight. Al promises to write to Sonora, but Doc hides his letters. As Doc and the new stable hand Clifford leave the farm in search of work, Lightning falls ill with colic. Al returns, and he and Sonora work together to heal Lightning. Doc fails to find any jobs, but Al announces he has arranged a six-month contract to perform at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey, reconciling father and son. Doc passes away en route from a heart attack, and Al assumes his father's role as show presenter. Sonora searches for Doc's jacket to give Al confidence on his first show, and finds one of Al's letters inside, confessing his love for her, letting him know she feels the same. Al proposes to Sonora just before a performance in front of their biggest crowd, which she accepts. The horse is a jittery stallion instead of her usual partner Lightning, who falters and trips due to a cymbal crash below. Sonora keeps her eyes open as they fall into the water. Both of them make it, but her vision is impaired, yet she hides this from Al. Sonora wakes the morning after to discover she is permanently blind from detached retinas in both eyes. To avoid a breach of contract lawsuit, Al must find another diving girl within a week, calling Marie, who returns. Meanwhile, Sonora misses diving terribly. She tells Al of her desire to dive with Lightning again, and they work together to try to train her to mount him again, but it proves fruitless and Al gives up. Sonora spends some quiet time with Lightning that night. The next day, with Clifford's help, Marie is locked in her dressing room, and Sonora performs in her place with Lightning. Al shouts at her to come back down, but she continues and the jump is successful. Her voiceover tells the audience that she continued diving for eleven more years with the audience never learning of her blindness, and of her happy marriage to Al. 

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A young family moves to rural Wales to renovate a farmhouse and recover from the drowning death of their daughter, Ruthie. While there, the family witnesses a series of terrible mutilations of sheep by an unknown perpetrator. 

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Dr. Jonathan Hemlock is an art professor and mountaineer. He is also a collector of paintings, most of them obtained from the black market. To finance his collection Hemlock, who served in a Special Forces team of the Army Intelligence Branch and fought in the Korean War, works as a so-called "counter-assassin" for a secret US government agency, the CII. In order to acquire a Pissarro, Hemlock agrees to carry out a couple of "sanctions" (contract assassinations targeted specifically against killers of American agents). The first one is easily dealt with in Montreal. For the second, he will need to join a group of climbers who are about to attempt the north face of the Eiger, a particularly difficult challenge. Hemlock goes back into training and eventually climbs the mountain with the team that he believes includes his would-be victim -- whose identity he will have to deduce on the mountain itself. Poor climbing conditions disrupt the climb and lead Hemlock to the discovery that his target is someone other than he had expected. 

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In 1900, lumberman Jim Fallon (Kirk Douglas) greedily eyes the big redwood trees in the virgin region of northern California. The land is already settled by, among others, a religious group led by Elder Bixby (Charles Meredith) who have a religious relationship with the redwoods and refuse to log them, using smaller trees for lumber. Jim becomes infatuated with Bixby's daughter, Alicia (Eve Miller), though that does not change his plan to cheat the homesteaders. When Jim's right-hand man, Yukon Burns (Edgar Buchanan) finds out, he changes sides and leads the locals in resisting Jim. The locals combat Jim's loggers with a sympathetic judge with Jim fighting back by using Federal laws. Elder Bixby is killed when a big sequoia tree is chopped down by Jim's men and falls on his cabin. Jim's desperate attempt to rescue Alicia's father saves him from being convicted of murder. Meanwhile, timber rival Cleve Gregg (Harry Cording) appears on the scene, making it a three-way fight. Gregg and his partner Frenchy LeCroix (John Archer) try to assassinate Jim, but end up killing Yukon instead. Jim has a dramatic change of heart and leads the settlers in defeating Gregg and Frenchy. Afterwards, Jim marries Alicia and settles down. 

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Fifteen years ago, wealthy but crippled Colorado cattleman Arch Strobie (Ray Collins), whose own son Lee (Robert Walker) was wild, took in young Owen Daybright (Burt Lancaster) as a foster son to help raise and control Lee. Now Owen is ranch foreman, but Lee, despite being married to Jen (Joanne Dru), is wilder than ever. Unmarried Lily Fasken (Sally Forrest) gives birth but refuses to identify the father. After Owen gives Lily $500 to help care for the baby, her brothers Hub (John Ireland) and Dick (Hugh O'Brian) believe that he is the guilty party, but they are unaware that Owen has done this on Lee's behalf. The brothers try to beat up Owen and he lodges a complaint against them. Sentenced to a week in jail, they vow to get even as soon as they're out. When Arch chides Lee for overdrawing his bank account by withdrawing $500 in gold, Jen realizes that Lee fathered Lily's baby. She confronts him and Lee tries to lie his way out. She decides to leave him but is persuaded by Owen and Arch to stay. Lee inveigles Arch to make him a partner in the ranch by saying that he will strike out on his own unless he gets a half-interest; he gets what he wants and learns that the other half will go to Owen, once Arch retires or dies. Jen locks Lee out of their bedroom. He gets drunk, mistakenly believing she and Owen are carrying on behind his back. He schemes to get rid of Owen and make a fortune at the same time by conspiring with Hub and Dick to ambush Owen during the spring cattle roundup. On the trail, Lee secretly sells 3,000 head of the cattle, intending to run off with it, but Owen learns of the plan. Lee pretends to change his mind. He persuades Owen to ride in with him to stop the sale, but in fact he lures Owen into a trap. Hub and Dick, waiting in ambush, wound Owen as Lee casually rides away. In the ensuing gunfight, Owen Kills Dick. Hearing shots, a group of trailhands ride to Owen's rescue. They chase down and shoot Hub. Owen catches up with Lee and tells him that they are both going to confess everything to Arch. Lee refuses and draws his gun, forcing Owen to kill him. Owen breaks the news to Arch and Jen. 

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It is eighteen months since the outbreak of World War II and Captain Mainwaring is giving a lecture on the progress of the war, and admits that they have thrown the Allies out of Greece and Crete, but reminds them that Rudolf Hess surrendered not too long ago, so the rats are leaving the sinking ship. However, he tells the platoon that the enemy are dropping empty parachutes to confuse the people, and if they spot one, they must report it to GHQ. Jones wonders what the difference is between British parachutes and Nazi parachutes. Mainwaring's memo tells him that British parachutes are white, while Nazi parachutes are a dirty, creamy, off-white. Frazer points out that the parachutist may be miles away by the time they find the parachute, so Walker decides to bring a tracker dog to the next parade. After the parade, Jones decides to go to the pub, but Walker has to talk to Mainwaring. He confides in Mainwaring and Wilson that he found a parachute not long ago. Mainwaring is anxious to know whether it was white or cream. Walker cannot remember, as he sold it on his stall as part of eight dozen pairs of ladies' knickers. He, Mainwaring and Wilson now have the unenviable task of trying to find a pair among the citizens of Walmington-on-Sea. Unsurprisingly, they have no luck, except a young lady who has no hesitation in showing Wilson her blue knickers. The people they have questioned complain to ARP Warden Hodges, who leaves Mainwaring in a tough situation when a pair of knickers emerges from a letterbox. During a stealth practice the next day, Walker brings in the tracker dog. They test the dog's sniffing power by having Jones pretending to be a Nazi parachutist. They remove Jones's jacket and allow the dog to pick up his scent. As they head up the church hall stairs, Mrs Pike arrives to remind Wilson about their tête-a-tête supper. As the platoon, Jones and the dog come charging down the stairs, they knock down Mrs Pike, revealing her underwear. Walker remembers that he sold the last pair of knickers to Mrs Pike, and they're white: it was a British parachute. Some time later, Hodges notices a parachute stuck in a tree. He is so busy trying to get it down, that unwittingly gives directions to Downsend Woods for a man with a peculiar accent. Just as he removes the parachute, the platoon arrive, and it isn't long before the dog picks up the scent. Hodges tells Mainwaring about the man with the German accent, and it isn't long before they spot him. They follow him to a barn containing a Pekingese Dog, a big mansion that was bombed in an air raid the previous year and into a dilapidated old barn, and capture him. However, it turns out he's a Viennese ornithologist, looking for a golden oriole bird's egg. Suddenly, the real German parachutist comes charging in, angry that the platoon keeps running away because he is trying to give himself up. 

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Mainwaring is preparing to march the platoon over to the recreation ground for a lecture on field craft. Wilson enters the office, informing him that Pike and Jones are ready for him to inspect their rifles, and Frazer is ready with the Lewis Gun. Mainwaring inspects Jones' rifle, and reminds him not to leave sausage skins in the magazine again. He also reminds Pike not to let his mother clean his rifle with a bath brick. Frazer is relieved to not have to clean the Lewis Gun again for three weeks, but Mainwaring notices that the butterfly spring is missing, and Frazer surmises that it is in his workshop. Mainwaring marches the platoon to Frazer's workshop and Frazer searches for the box where he keeps his tools, believing the spring is there, but it has gone. Mainwaring asks him what the box was like, and is shocked to learn that it is shaped like a coffin. Frazer tells him that when he was young, he used to learn how to make coffins and dentistry on the Isle of Mingulay. He remembers that Mr Drury, an undertaker, would probably have taken it, so the platoon head there. Mr Drury is in a bit of a rush, and doesn't stop to talk to Frazer and Jones. They confront his secretary, Miss Baker, who confirms the use of the coffin. Frazer asks if it is still there, but Miss Baker confesses that it is now occupied by a Mr Horace Blewitt. Jones and Frazer are shocked, and are even more shocked to learn that his brother Sidney wanted him to rest in peace on his dining room table. Jones and Frazer worm their way into Mr Blewitt's house, and Jones distracts Mr Blewitt while Frazer searches the coffin. Mr Blewitt tells Jones that his brother came home after buying best end of neck from Jones, looked at it, and cried: "Look at that! All bloody bone!" after saying which, he collapsed and died from the shock. Jones accuses Mr Blewitt of accusing him of "doing in" his brother, and drags Frazer out of the house in indignation before he has had a chance to fully inspect the coffin. Mainwaring rings GHQ about spare springs, but none are in stock. Walker's friend who makes safes can't help them because he's in prison. So, Mainwaring decides that they should return to Mr Blewitt's house, and break in after Mr Blewitt has gone to bed. However, when Jones and Frazer climb into the dining room via the kitchen window, they are shocked to learn that the coffin lid is screwed down. They attempt to unscrew the coffin lid, but they are interrupted by Mr Blewitt coming down the stairs, and quickly make their exit. Next morning, while Frazer's officiating Horace's funeral, the platoon arrive at the churchyard, just as the procession arrive at the grave. They stick a "Danger! Unexploded Bomb" sign in the ground, and warn the Vicar and the mourners that there's an unexploded bomb in the churchyard. However, it is just a ruse to clear the graveyard. Later, Jones' section arrive at the grave to retrieve the spring. Jones reluctantly climbs inside to check, but they are interrupted by the Verger, who has come to fill in Horace's hole. However, they are unable to remove Jones from the grave, so the Verger is understandably surprised when the earth he digs into the grave is flung back in his face. The Verger confronts Mainwaring and Jones' section, who manage to cover up the whole thing until he leaves. Mainwaring admits he must report Frazer to GHQ for court-martial but, just in the nick of time, Frazer discovers the butterfly spring in his trouser pocket. 

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Mr Maxwell, the solicitor for the late Mr Johnson, tells Mainwaring and Wilson that the only things he left of any value are the clothes he stood up in, and his boat The Naughty Jane. Wilson adds that Mr Johnson's account was overdrawn to the extent of £33 12s 6d. Mainwaring admits that that means the boat becomes the property of the bank, and can be used to offset the overdraft. Just as Mr Maxwell leaves, Mainwaring has an idea, much to Wilson's panic: the platoon can use that boat for river patrols and tells him that half a dozen determined men, armed to the teeth, can play havoc with the Nazis if they invaded. Wilson tells Mainwaring that the platoon work hard enough as it is, and deserve a rest. Mainwaring tells Wilson that he only wants to test it out and decides to call for volunteers. He chooses Jones, Pike, Walker, Desmond, Godfrey and Frazer. They hold a practice in the church hall using chairs and mops. Mainwaring's lack of nautical knowledge annoys Frazer, who holds the most claim to being an experienced sailor. It isn't long before they get it out on the open water. Mainwaring says they'll just row up to the mouth of the river and turn back. However, it soon turns foggy, and Mainwaring decides to turn round. It isn't long before Mainwaring takes charge completely, and Frazer goes into a sulk. Night falls, and Mainwaring says they must be well up-stream by now. Pike is ill, and wants a drink; Walker scoops some water with his forage cap and gives it to Pike, who promptly spits it out because it's salty. They're in the middle of the English Channel. Frazer refuses to help, still stung after being spurned by Mainwaring, so the men have to come up with their own ideas, with little success. Mainwaring is proud of the men's loyalty, and Frazer, realising his stupidity, apologises to Mainwaring, and he accepts his apology. Mainwaring asks him where the North is, but Frazer doesn't know either. As dawn breaks, Jones hears voices from the shore. Elated, they row into the shore, and prepare to call out, but are interrupted by French singing (in actual fact, French Canadian pilots celebrating a successful mission in a nearby pub). Mainwaring believes that they must have drifted into France. They sneak into an empty railway truck, and make themselves comfortable, so they can escape the next night. Jones is woken by the sound of wheels turning, and is shocked when he opens the truck door and sees the train moving. He alerts Mainwaring, who in turn wakens the platoon, and they prepare to jump off, stop by stop, and make their way back to the coast to get back to England. They throw their rifle bolts and the Lewis Gun's butterfly spring out of the door, and stuff their hats and jackets up their tunics. As the train stops, they open the door, and spot a man on the station. Using schoolboy French, they attempt to bluff their way out of it. However, it turns out they're at Eastbourne Station. They prepare to head back to Walmington-on-Sea by train for lunch, but Mainwaring bursts their bubble by reminding them they have to pick up the rifle bolts and they set off back down the tracks. 

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Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Dueñas) are sisters who grew up in Alcanfor de las Infantas, a small village in La Mancha, but now both live in Madrid. Their parents had died in a fire three years before. Raimunda and her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) live with Paula's father Paco (Antonio de la Torre). When he attempts to rape Paula, claiming that he is not really her father, Paula stabs him in self-defense. Raimunda hides the corpse in the deep-freezer of a nearby restaurant with an absent owner, Emilio (Carlos Blanco). When members of a film crew happen upon the restaurant, Raimunda strikes a deal to cater for them, and finds herself back in the restaurant business. Meanwhile, Sole returns for the funeral of her elderly, dementia-stricken Aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave). Aunt Paula's neighbour Agustina (Blanca Portillo) confesses to Sole that she has heard Paula talking to the ghost of their mother Irene (Carmen Maura). Sole encounters the ghost herself, and when she returns to Madrid, she discovers that the ghost has stowed away in the trunk of her car. Sole agrees to let Irene stay with her: Sole operates a hair salon in her apartment, and Irene will assist her. Irene says that she wants to know why Raimunda hates her, and why she herself is afraid to reveal herself to Raimunda. Raimunda reveals to Paula that Paco was not her biological father, and promises to tell her the whole story later. Agustina is diagnosed with terminal cancer and goes to Madrid for treatment. Raimunda visits her in the hospital. Agustina asks Raimunda if she has seen her mother's ghost. Agustina hopes that the ghost will be able to tell her about her own mother, who disappeared three years before. Raimunda leaves Paula with Sole, rents a van and transports the freezer to a convenient spot by the river Júcar. While staying in Sole's apartment, Paula meets her grandmother's ghost and grows close to her. The next night, Agustina comes to the restaurant, and Raimunda reveals two startling secrets: her father and Agustina's mother were having an affair, and Agustina's mother disappeared on the same day that Raimunda's parents died. Sole tells Raimunda that she has seen their mother's ghost, who is in the next room with Paula. Irene admits that she did not, in fact, die in the fire, and reveals the whole truth. The reason for Raimunda and Irene's estrangement is that Raimunda's father sexually abused her, resulting in the birth of Paula; thus, Paula is Raimunda's daughter and her sister. Irene tells Raimunda that she did not know about the abuse until Aunt Paula told her about it, and never forgave herself for failing to stop it. Irene explains that she found her husband in bed with another woman and started the fire that killed them both. The ashes that had been presumed to be Irene's were, in fact, the ashes of Agustina's mother, the woman with whom Irene's husband was having an affair. After the fire, Irene wandered for several days in the countryside, until she decided that she wanted to turn herself in. But first, she wanted to say goodbye to Aunt Paula, who had lost the ability to look after herself and with whom Irene had been living prior to setting the fire. Paula welcomed Irene home as if nothing had happened, and Irene stayed, caring for her sister and expecting that the police would come soon to arrest her. Due to the superstitious and closed nature of the community, however, the police never came and the residents, accustomed to tales of the dead returning, explained the rare sightings of Irene as a ghost. The family reunites at Aunt Paula's house. Irene reveals her presence to Agustina, who believes her to be a ghost. Irene pledges to stay in the village and care for Agustina as her cancer worsens, saying to Raimunda that it was the least that she could do after killing Agustina's mother. Raimunda visits her mother at Agustina's house, and the two embrace and promise to repair their relationship. 

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Overpopulation has caused humanity to grow food in colonies on other planets. Unfortunately, the mushroom-growing planet that the player is responsible for is also inhabited by hostile native aliens which resemble giant insects. The player must use the droid under their control to maintain and harvest the mushrooms as well as look after and protect the colony itself. 

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The game centers on a city of humans which was one day encased by a Dome of Darkness, perpetrated by robot "cybers," who have trapped the citizens in "lies". While the organization known as Bible Corps. has managed to make a hole in the dome, they have not been able to accomplish much more. Captain Bible is engaged by Bible Corps. to be beamed into the city. Though he is able to take his computer Bible with him, all of the verses are erased. To remedy this, Bible Corps. beams Scripture stations into the city where he may reload it. Gameplay centers on Captain Bible obtaining these verses and using them to confront the cybers who obstruct the hallways of the buildings in the city. An optional feature allows the player to engage the cybers in hand-to-hand combat, which is performed using the Sword of the Spirit and the Shield of Faith. The game is presumably set in the somewhat distant future based upon several of the game details, including the cybers themselves, the transporter- type device used to beam Captain Bible into the Dome, and the spacecraft he uses in the opening screen to fly to the command post. 

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Dr. Jim Parsons is a physician born in 1980 and living in 2012. Abruptly, he undergoes involuntary time travel to 2405 and finds that his profession is treated with disdain. In the future, the population is static, with no natural births; only a death can cause the formation of a new embryo. The result is a society ambivalent toward death, as controlled genetics ensures that each successive generation better benefits the human race as a whole. By killing off the weak and the malformed, poverty and disease are eliminated, and humanity has an optimal chance for survival. Moreover, a single race derived from a mix of races controls this future world, as white men had become extinct centuries earlier. After Parsons cures a dying woman (not knowing that this is considered a heinous crime in this time period), Chancellor Al Stenog exiles him to Mars, but the spaceship is intercepted en route, and Parsons is returned to a deserted Earth far in the future. On finding a marker with instructions on how to operate the time travel controls on the spaceship, he is directed to a Native American-style tribal lodge, where he must perform surgery to hopefully restore the life of a cryogenically suspended time traveler, Corith, subsequent to the latter's death from an arrow wound 35 years earlier. Parsons extracts the missile but it later mysteriously rematerializes in Corith's body. To resolve this situation, Parsons travels with Corith's relatives back to Corith's previous assignment in 1579 on the Pacific Coast of North America, where Corith was to kill Sir Francis Drake in order to change history and preserve the Native American way of life, avoiding their subjugation by European colonial powers. While observing the assassination attempt on Drake, Parsons realizes that Drake is actually Chancellor Stenog. It seems that Stenog, in an ironic twist of fate, has taken Drake's place long enough to ensure that Corith's mission fails. Parsons tries to warn Corith, but Corith discovers that Parsons is a disguised white man and attacks him. In the ensuing struggle, Parsons inadvertently stabs Corith in the heart with one of the arrow replicas that were intended to make it appear that Drake was killed by a Native American of that period. In retribution, Parsons is left stranded by Corith's relatives in 1597, a year in which the European explorers had removed themselves for many years to come. But Parsons is quickly rescued by Loris, Corith's daughter, when she has a change of heart after learning that she is pregnant with Parsons' child. While briefly back in 2405, Parsons realizes that the reason the arrow mysteriously reappeared in Corith's chest after he'd removed it was because he had apparently murdered him for a second time to cover his own tracks. If Corith were to recover, he would have revealed that it was Parsons who killed him, and an unwitting Parsons from slightly earlier would have been left helpless at the hands of Corith's relatives. As he stands over Corith, ready to kill him for a second time, he decides against it and flees. But a nagging curiosity obliges him to return yet again. He sees two unknown people kill Corith with the second arrow to the heart. Parsons discovers that the murderers are the children he will one day have with Loris, traveling back to 2405 from an even more distant future. His children take Parsons forward in time to meet with Loris again, and he struggles with the decision to return to 2012. Eventually he goes back to the same day that he left and to the doting wife who saw him off earlier that morning. He sets about his old life with a new task at hand. The novel closes with him designing the stone marker that will eventually save his life on that desolate future Earth. 

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Bunjy Kenefick is an Irish mother's boy living in London. He is a top executive of a company and lives a bachelor lifestyle. However, his old- fashioned Catholic mother often puts a stop to his plans, many of them involving his girlfriend Miss Argyll. Other characters include Father Patrick, often mocked for his dubious morality, and Cousin Enda. The episodes feature some surreal elements, such as "Catholic Chess", which pits pieces modelled on prominent Catholic figures against one modelled on prominent Protestant figures. On the Catholic side of the board are buttons which can drop opposing pieces through trapdoors, "sending them to Hell". Bunjy's mother would pray to bizarrely named saints. 

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The film begins on a passenger plane, where a young girl named Miki and her step-mother are taken hostage by a man and a cross-dressing woman. They call the father of Miki, but he has his own problems; another man is menacing him and when he tries to take the gun a fight breaks out and the father is shot. One of the Chai Lai members, Rose, enters the house and gets into a fight with another henchman. Miki gets upset that her father is shot via the mobile phone and she stabs the man who has taken her hostage in the hand with a pipe, which sets off a fight on the plane. The members of Chai Lai are fighting along with a young police man named Chen. Meanwhile, Rose (Bongkoj Khongmalai) has gutted the henchman at the house with a machete and chases the man, who shot the father but crashes her car shortly after. When the man drives and misses her, she shoots the gasoline pouring out of the vehicle and it explodes. A crime boss named Dragon yells at his henchman at a meeting for failing their mission to which the cross-dressing woman is named King Kong, whom she blames Chai Lai for their failures. Miki's step-mother barges in on the meeting, revealing that she works for them. Chai Lai's boss tells the girls that it is alright that they failed their mission despite that the father is dead and the men escaped. The new plan is to protect Miki at school. They fail to keep Miki safe at her school on the first day and she gets kidnapped by the henchman. Chai Lai chase them but when member Hibiscus (Jintara Poonlarp), after being freed from the van and saved by Rose, gets out a rocket launcher and fires but remembers that Miki is still inside. Luckily for Miki, the van swerves and the rocket hits the tuk-tuk that Spadix was driving instead with her and Lotus (Supaksorn Chaimongkol) narrowly escaping. The van escapes as the train goes by, stopping them. Later, Miki attacks the henchman but is quickly stopped and tied. Miki's Step-mother, Ms. Mei Ling, pretends to be beaten up by King Kong so that she can reveal the secret location of the Andaman Pearl but it backfires. The next day, the Chai Lai are getting a massage with Ms. Mei Ling and King Kong. Soon, a fight quickly breaks out with them wearing nothing but towels. Eventually, Ms. Mei Ling escapes and the henchman join in the fight. During the fight, Ms. Mei Ling gets into her car and menaces Chen in the car park until Hibiscus appears and tries to gun her but she quickly escapes. Soon into the fight, a woman in a suit shows up and fights, King Kong escapes and Rose is about to chase after until she is pursued by two henchman outside. King-Kong runs into Spadix, who tries to gun her but fails. After Lotus, Rose and Pouy-Sian (Kessarin Ektawatkul) finish they meet Spadix outside just as she throws King Kong and she escapes. King Kong hires the four-nation bounty hunters to finish the Chai Lai off, Rosen goes on a date with her boyfriend, Gud, who proposes to her. Dragon's henchman arrive with a beaten up Gud, the girls end up fighting their way into the swimming pool, and they escape through hatch that is in there. The exit is in a medieval castle, which is filled with weapons the girls stock up on, because King Kong is outside with the four-nation assassins. Kathleen, who is a goofy cross-eyed assassin girl, who becomes King Kong's sidekick. The girls are captured in a cage except Hibischus, who arrives in a tank and attacks as the girls escape but unfortunately Gud is still captured. The Chai Lais have no clue how Dragon knew where their house was and also they decide not to love anyone again because of Gud, new orders are given to the girls from their boss by iPod. Dragon get the idea the Andaman Pearl is on an island called Thai Baht due to Miki and they travel there. The men find the Andaman Pearl and escape with it after being attacked by Lotus, Rose and Pouy-Sian. At a party to sell the Andaman Pearl, Miki's father arrives as a surprise bidder. The Chai Lais, soon enter the arena, where a fight starts. Ms. Mei Ling shoots Gud in the back in cold blood with Rose upset and in her anger, she guns Ms. Mei Ling down and the SUV driver guy. Dragon is chases by Lotus, Spadix and Pouy-Sian as he has the pearl and Miki hostage, whom she escapes from. Dragon heads to the roof for a helicopter escape, with Lotus chasing after. Miki is pursued by King Kong and Kathleen in a park and the rest are with many henchman in another part of the park. The henchman are all dead, Dragon shot in the head twice by Lotus and Kathleen shoots King Kong many times. Chai Lai's boss reveals that Kathleen was a spy and he has some kind of relationship with her. Miki is made as a member of Chai Lai. Chai Lai (including Kathleen and Miki) goes to battle; the members are dressed in white with machine guns fighting on the Afghan beaches near the Afghan jungles. 

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Jack Slate is a police officer partnered with his K-9 unit, Shadow. The two patrol Grant City, a metropolis seemingly populated with more criminals than honest citizens. One night while on a routine patrol, Jack responds to a call at a construction zone, only to find his own father murdered. In pursuit of his father's killer, Jack is led through a labyrinth of crime and corruption. He is eventually framed for another murder by the corrupt police chief Richard "Dick" Hennesey, in a bid to stop Jack before he undermines the status quo. However, after seven months in prison, Jack escapes from imprisonment by putting battery acid on the electric chair wires and hunts down Hennesey, clearing away the city's crime lords in the process. He first gets clothes at the apartment he was framed at and goes to Chinatown for information. There he battles Fat Chow and his goons and interrogates Marvin Silt, a goon who tried to run him down outside the prison before a woman named Eve Adams murders Silt. Eve is able to identify the assassin who was hired to frame Jack and the two have to battle Fat Chow and his goons again, with Jack killing Fat Chow before they are able to escape. Afterward Jack visits his father's grave and meets Hildy, his father's former assistant there and he learns from her that his father was investigating the corrupt mayor and police force for mayoral candidate Gloria Exner before his murder. Jack comes under attack by unknown attackers in clown masks, but eventually escapes the cemetery and links up with Eve again to foil an assassination attempt on Exner at a public debate. The two foil the attempt, but Eve is murdered by Patch, the assassin who framed Jack. Jack chases down Patch and causes his limo to crash, but the crash kills Patch, preventing interrogation, although Jack takes his pager. Jack then protects Gloria Exner from corrupt police officers attempting to murder her and learns a little more about what his father was investigating, but learns Gloria never found out what he knew as he was murdered before he could tell her. After receiving a message on Patch's pager, Jack chases a man named Gofer around the docks hoping for answers, but finds Gofer murdered and is injured. While Hildy helps him, mercenaries led by Rafshoon Digs captured both Hildy and Jack and takes Jack to meet Fahook Ubduhl, a Middle Eastern crime lord who basically runs the Grant City underworld. With the help of Shadow, Jack escapes and finally learns what this is really about: gold. The mayor was running a gold mining operation and Jack's father stumbled on it. Jack returns to the prison where he kills Diggs and confronts the mayor who confirms all he's found out already and fills in the rest: the mayor was running a gold mining and smuggling operation with Fahook. Police chief Hennessey, who is corrupt and blackmailing many people, had his hands in the operation. As he would lose money if the mayor was shut down, Hennessey murdered Slate's father to protect it. The mayor and Jack ally to take down Hennessey, with Jack getting incriminating files from the police station in exchange for a pardon from the mayor. Jack gets the files (learning at the same time that the attackers in the cemetery were corrupt police officers in disguise), but decides to give them to Exner instead, but Exner betrays him and takes the files to give to the mayor out of fear. However, Exner is murdered by Hildy who is now working for Fahook. She takes the files, but doesn't harm Jack who follows her to an abandoned Air Force base that is Fahook's hideout. There, Hildy is murdered by the mayor after giving Fahook the files and Jack kills the mayor in revenge. Fahook escapes on a plane, but Jack manages to get on board, blowing up the base at the same time. Jack chases Fahook through the plane and battles him in the cargo hold, finally killing him by knocking him out of the plane in mid-flight while getting the files at the same time. The plane crashes back at the airbase and Jack is the only survivor. Jack then gives the files to reporter Kip Waterman to put on the news before he heads off to get his revenge on Hennessey. At the end of the game, Jack kills Hennessey in the boiler room of an apartment building and leaves town, stating that while he has justice for his father's murder it will take more than him to clear the city of crime. However, Jack states that with Hennessey, Blatz (the man he was framed for murdering) and Fahook, the city's three major crime lords, dead, there will be a struggle for power among the criminal underworld. As Jack revealed the evidence to the media, the FBI investigate the case and presumably clear him of the murder charges, but Jack fakes his death, pretending to have died in the plane crash near the end of the game with only Kip Waterman knowing the truth. During the credits, Preacherman Jones, the man who helped Jack escape from prison and was also framed for a crime, receives a package from Jack with a note saying "faith padre, faith" (what Jack told him earlier in the game when promising to come back for him), a bar of gold and evidence taken from Hennessey's files that could clear Jones' name. Jones then summons a guard to presumably give the evidence to. 

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In 1970s western North Carolina, a young man stumbles across a grove of marijuana, sees an opportunity to make some easy money, and steps into the jaws of a bear trap. He is discovered by the ruthless farmer who set the trap to protect his plants, and begins his struggle with the evils of his community's present as well as those of its history. Before long, he has moved out of his parents' home to live with a onetime schoolteacher who now lives in a trailer outside town, deals a few drugs, and studies journals from the American Civil War. Their fates become entwined as the community's terrible past and corrupt present lead to a violent reckoning with the marijuana farmer and with a Civil War massacre that continues to divide an Appalachian community.(adapted from dust jacket) 

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The story deals with Brian, still stranded at the L-shaped lake during the fall and winter, constructing a winter shelter, building snow shoes, being confronted by a bear, befriending and naming a skunk and learning how to make a bow more powerful. Eventually, Brian meets a family of Cree trappers, the Smallhorns, who help him return home. 

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Henry Graham, a playboy from a wealthy patrician family, has run through his entire inheritance and is completely unequipped to provide for himself. His childhood guardian, Uncle Harry, refuses to give him a dime. Henry considers but is unwilling to exercise the only solution he can think of—suicide. At the suggestion of his valet Harold, Henry decides the only other viable option open to him: marrying into wealth. With a $50,000 loan from Uncle Harry to tide him over, Henry has just six weeks to find a rich bride and repay the money, otherwise he must forfeit all of his property to his uncle. Desperation sets in as Henry's attempts to meet a suitable mate comically fail. With only days remaining, Henry meets clumsy, painfully shy heiress Henrietta Lowell, a botany professor. She is the answer to his prayers; wealthy and with no family. However, Henrietta's suspicious (and crooked) lawyer Andy McPherson is a problem for Henry, as his Uncle Harry plots with the shyster to prove to Henrietta that Henry only wants her for her money. They fail, and Henrietta marries Henry. On their honeymoon, Henrietta discovers what may be an undescribed species of fern. Murder never far from his mind, Henry takes charge of his wife's life. He reorganizes her household staff, who had been taking full advantage of her timidity and naivete—and sharing their profits with her former lawyer. He also learns how to manage accounts and a vast estate. Henrietta is completely disorganized and welcomes Henry's guidance. She also finds out that he has a B.A. in history, and suggests he could get a teaching job at the university she works at, so they could be together all the time and grade term papers together. Wishing nothing more than to be rich, single, and completely idle, Henry finds this prospect utterly horrifying. When Henrietta's fern is confirmed as an entirely new species, she names it Alsophila grahami after Henry. He is unexpectedly touched, since this gives him a form of immortality, something he has always desired. She invites him to join her on her canoe trip to the Adirondacks for her annual field trip. Henry sees this as an opportunity to rid himself of Henrietta forever in a remote area with no witnesses. He is tortured by mosquitoes and utterly miserable as they portage their way from lake to lake. Before Henry can figure out a way to dispose of her, their canoe capsizes in an area of rapids. Henry makes it to shore, but Henrietta tells him she cannot swim. Henry tells her to let go of the log she's clinging to and he'll rescue her—intending to do nothing of the sort. Then just as he's departing the scene, already thinking of the story he'll tell to the police, he finds an example of the fern Henrietta named after him and turns to tell Henrietta about it, forgetting just for a moment what he's done. He discovers that the token she gave him with a sample of the fern in it has been lost, and he is deeply upset. In this moment Henry realizes that his old life is gone forever, along with the man he used to be, and despite himself he loves Henrietta. Cursing the turn of events, he rescues Henrietta and embraces his unexpected fate as a married man and future professor of history. Henrietta asks him if he'll always be there to take care of her, to which he responds "I'm afraid so." Accompanied by bird song and twee music, they walk off into the sunset together.The New Yorker 

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The book's plot concerns two retired men who are thrown together following the deaths of their wives in the same hospital. Both have served in the armed forces, one, Reggie Conyngham-Jervis, being a former officer, the other, Roy Southgate, an ex-NCO. The perceived class differences lead to Roy moving in with Reggie and being treated as an unpaid servant. The reader's sympathies are with Roy as he remains humble and faithful to his purpose until Reggie becomes too domineering. Roy remarries, and Reggie, whose attempt to seduce a younger widow, Liz Franks, has ended in failure, is left alone. 

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After foiling a purse snatcher who tries to steal Jenny Johnson's (Uma Thurman) purse on the subway, Matthew Saunders (Luke Wilson) becomes Jenny's "hero" and starts dating this shy stranger. After several dates, Jenny displays increasingly neurotic and aggressive behavior, becoming more demanding and ultimately injuring Matt and destroying his bed the first time they have sex. Soon after, Jenny reveals to him that she is in fact the voluptuous blonde superheroine, G-Girl, who accidentally received powers such as flight, superhuman strength, speed, and senses, invulnerability, super breath, and heat vision after she was exposed to radiation from a crashed meteorite as a teenager. Jenny starts to become more controlling after she reveals her powers and Matt starts to lose his mind. Hannah Lewis (Anna Faris), Matt's co-worker, has a crush on him despite the fact that she is going out with a handsome but shallow underwear model. As Matt and Hannah's friendship develops further, and after becoming aggravated with Jenny's escalating jealousy, Matt ends the relationship. An enraged Jenny vows to make Matt regret the decision, using her superpowers to publicly embarrass him, throwing his car into space and eventually causing him to lose his job as an architect when she strips him naked during an important meeting. Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard), Jenny's former friend, and now G-Girl's nemesis, contacts Matt to enlist his aid in defeating her. Matt refuses and makes plans to leave the city. As he does so, he is contacted by Hannah, who has broken up with her cheating boyfriend, and after confessing their feelings to each other, they end up in bed together. Jenny (as G-Girl) discovers them in bed the next day. Enraged and jealous, she attacks the pair with a great white shark. Angered, Matt contacts Professor Bedlam and agrees to help him defeat her, as long as Bedlam retires from being a supervillain. He instructs Matt to lure Jenny to a meeting where she can be exposed to another meteorite that will draw away her powers, leaving her a normal woman. Matt agrees and meets Jenny for a candlelit dinner at his apartment, under the pretense of wanting to resume their relationship. Hannah arrives to see Jenny sitting on Matt's lap. The two women fight, and in the struggle, Jenny's superhero identity is revealed to Hannah. Bedlam's trap is sprung, and the energy that gave Jenny her powers is drained back into the meteorite, incapacitating Jenny. Professor Bedlam appears, but reveals that he has no intention of keeping his promise to retire from villainy and in fact plans to take the powers for himself. While he and Matt fight, Jenny crawls to the charged meteorite attempting to regain her powers. Hannah intervenes just as Jenny grabs the meteorite, which explodes in a burst of power. Both Hannah and Jenny are catapulted off the roof, apparently to their deaths; Jenny appears within seconds, powers restored, threatening even more mayhem. Only the unexpected reappearance of Hannah, who was also exposed to the meteorite's energies, and now possesses the same powers as G-Girl, saves Matt. The second fight between Hannah and Jenny is a full-on super-brawl, destroying part of the neighboring properties. Finally, Matt reasons with them both and they cease fighting. He tells Jenny that Professor Bedlam is her true love. Jenny agrees and she embraces her former nemesis. The next morning, Matt and Hannah meet up with Professor Bedlam (now just "Barry") and Jenny. As cries for help are heard from afar, Jenny and Hannah, who have become partners in crime-fighting, take off to tackle the emergency. Matt and Barry are left holding their girlfriends' purses and clothes, and leave to have a beer together. 

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Eleven-year-old Hunter Steel searches for the legendary inner world by following instructions in his grandfather's journal. He enters a cave where he finds a mysterious manacle attaching to his arm. A spider startles Hunter, who falls into a hole to the center of the Earth and into the subterranean world of Arachna. There, he discovers a small group of elite warriors struggling to survive and to save Arachna from the attack of Invectids, a race of insectoids. The warriors are children, each fighting with the help of their own battle spiders. They call themselves "Spider Riders". In the English TV series, the ages of the characters were reduced. There is a prophecy that says a surface-dweller or Human, like Hunter, will bring disaster to the Inner World. Sparkle mentions it in the beginning of the TV series. When Princess Sparkle finds out she says, "I wonder if he will bring doom to us...or to them." 

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Just Cause begins with Rico Rodriguez, an operative for an organization known as the CIA, being dropped into a Caribbean tropical island called San Esperito, after being called there by his commanding officer, Tom Sheldon, to help overthrow San Esperito's dictator, Salvador Mendoza, whom the Agency believes to be in possession of weapons of mass destruction. After his arrival, Rico meets up with Sheldon and fellow agent Maria Kane, and they ally themselves with a guerrilla group staging a rebellion against the regime and the Rioja drug cartel, another enemy of the government. Rico assists them in their civil war against Mendoza's corrupt officials; Black Hand mercenaries and the Montano cartel. Rico can also assist in the liberation of various territories to further destabilize the government's rule over the island. Eventually, Sheldon discovers that Mendoza does, indeed, have control of WMDs, and with San Esperito so politically unstable and with the guerrillas having the upper hand, the president is forced to retreat to his private presidential island just off the mainland. Sheldon and Kane fly Rico to the island to kill Mendoza, but he attempts to escape via jet. However, Rico boards the jet and kills Mendoza and his remaining bodyguards, ending his reign over the islands. 

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A rock star, Tom Pickle (Michael York), travels to India to learn to play the sitar with the great musician Ustad Zafar Khan (as George Harrison did when he studied under Ravi Shankar). Khan (Utpal Dutt) is not happy with his disciple but still takes him to Benares to meet his own guru. 

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Ralph Walker is a teenager attending a Catholic school in Hamilton, Ontario. His father was killed in World War II and his mother is hospitalized with an unidentified illness. Ralph is naturally prone to mischief and often finds himself an outcast among his classmates. He tries to emulate the conduct of grown ups, and is caught smoking cigarettes and masturbating by headmaster Father Fitzpatrick. Already labeled a troublemaker, Ralph is forced to join the school's cross country team to relieve him of his excess energy. When Ralph's mother falls into a coma, he is told it will take a miracle for her to survive. When running coach Father Hibbert, a former world class marathoner who was forced to quit running when he injured his knee, claims it would be a miracle if a member of his team won the Boston Marathon, Ralph decides to train for it in the hope his victory would fulfill the miracle needed to save his mother's life. At first, Ralph cannot even keep up with his teammates in practice. He reads books to learn about running, uses the new techniques, and gradually improves. Father Hibbert decides to train him despite disapproval from Father Fitzpatrick. Ralph begins to win the respect of his classmates, and eventually wins the attention of the local media when he wins a prestigious regional race. When Father Fitzpatrick learns Ralph intends to run the Boston Marathon, he threatens to expel him if he participates, as well as remove Father Hibbert from the priesthood should he try to interfere. Both Ralph and his mentor must then decide how deeply they believe in miracles, and what is possible when a person risks everything without promise of success. Both he and Father Hibbert defy Father Fitzpatrick and decide to go to Boston. Ralph ends up winning second place after a close race with the previous year's winner and gives the medal to his mother who wakes up from her coma. 

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Despite the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope, the Galactic Empire stills retains an iron grip on the galaxy. Upon discovering the Rebel Alliance's secret base, the Empire strikes with massive force, sending the rebels scrambling across the galaxy. Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca ("Chewie") and C-3PO are slowed down from escaping with the rest of the group by collapsing ice on Hoth. Throughout the story, they remain within The Empire's reach. Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 flee to Dagobah, but not to regroup with the others. Instead, Luke seeks Yoda in order to be trained as a Jedi Knight. His development of Force sensitivity during his training gives him a sensation of the danger shadowing his friends. Subsequently, Luke's friends are captured in Cloud City. Han is frozen in carbonite and taken to Jabba the Hutt. Luke leaves Dagobah to save his friends. But it is a trap, as the unprepared Luke is drawn into an unsuccessful confrontation with the Imperial Sith Lord Darth Vader. He is left with a missing hand, near-death and reeling from the shocking revelation that Vader is his father. However, he is rescued by the Millennium Falcon.Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back As in the film, the ending sees Luke, Leia, Chewie, 3PO and R2-D2 reunited, with Luke and Lando finalizing their plan to rescue Han Solo from Jabba's captivity. 

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Camille Baker (Pascale Bussières) is a university literature professor at a religious college in a long-term relationship with fellow professor Martin (Henry Czerny). When her dog runs away and she finds him dead on the street, she ends up crying in the middle of the laundromat where she is approached by Petra (Rachael Crawford), who comforts her. Later on Camille realizes that her laundry was mixed up with Petra's and finds a business card inside the laundry bag. Going to return Petra's clothes she finds that Petra is a circus performer, and when she goes to Petra's trailer to retrieve her clothes Petra tells her that she would like to sleep with her. Confused and uncomfortable, Camille grabs her clothes and leaves. Petra later tracks Camille down and shoots an arrow through her window with a picture of herself and her phone number attached. Camille invites Petra inside and ends up kissing her before running away. Camille and Martin are being groomed to take over for the university chaplain, with the chaplain hinting heavily that they must marry in order to be promoted. At the interview Camille refuses to denounce homosexuality as a sin, and when asked what she would do if a male student came to her for advice on being attracted to another man, Camille cannot answer the question. Martin believes that Camille is acting unusual on purpose because of her discomfort over their future marriage, and embraces her. They are seen by Petra, who was waiting outside Camille's office. Afterwards Camille goes to see Petra, ostensibly to ask Petra to stop following her, but instead ends up asking her to become her friend after telling her that the kiss was a mistake. Petra takes Camille hang-gliding, and though Camille is initially reluctant to participate, Petra urges her onward by telling her that night is falling and they will miss their chance if they don't hurry. While hang gliding Camille ends up injuring her knee. Petra takes her home and then massages her, with the massage quickly turning sexual as Petra unbuttons her blouse and takes off Camille's bra. They are interrupted by the university chaplain (David Fox) visiting Camille. Camille passes Petra off as an acquaintance, and when she refuses to leave, excuses her to the chaplain by saying she is a disturbed street kid. Petra leaves in anger and Camille goes to Martin's house, where she has sex with him. However, when Martin leaves to go to a conference, Camille cannot stop herself from fantasizing about Petra and goes to the circus to see her, where the two have sex. Camille goes to the chaplain seeking guidance, and he is more understanding than she anticipated. She goes to the circus where Petra and the rest of the performers are celebrating an invitation to Circumstance, a festival for Circus performers. She and Petra begin a relationship and they discuss the possibility of Camille joining Petra in the circus. Meanwhile, Martin, who has returned from his trip, waits for Camille in her home and finds the picture of Petra with her number written on it. He goes to the circus and sees Camille and Petra naked in the trailer. After Camille leaves without seeing him he introduces himself to Petra and then leaves, but not before hitting the outside of her trailer in anger, scaring Petra. Camille meanwhile heads home to break up with Martin, and is surprised to find him already there. He urges her to think before she speaks, telling her that they have a good relationship and suggesting that her passion for Petra will fade. Thinking things over, Camille heads into the woods to finally bury her dead dog, whom she had kept in the fridge until that point. After burying the dog, she begins drinking and passes out in a snowbank. She is found by the hang gliders who had joined her and Petra on their first outing as friends. They call Petra and she rushes to Camille's side, wrapping her body around her and trying to revive her. Once revived Camille joins Petra and the circus on their way to Circumstance. The director of the circus (Tracy Wright), who had dreamed of running away, stays in the city where she and Martin spot each other outside a café. 

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The plot portrays the Swedish government as being responsible for using the ship to covertly transport Russian high-tech components to the United States. The story is uncovered by a young female journalist, not unlike Rabe herself. According to Rabe, divers hired by the Swedish government (signing contracts swearing lifetime secrecy) spent hours breaking into cabins frantically searching for a black attaché case carried by a Russian space technology dealer, Aleksandr Voronin (who died 2002). She highlighted US interest in various Soviet technology, including nuclear-powered satellites. She also suggested that panic about the stability of some form of nuclear device is the most likely reason behind the initial Swedish government suggestion of burying the wreck in concrete, a highly unusual proposal for a wreck, reminiscent of Chernobyl's sarcophagus. 

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The future society described in the novel has developed a form of psychological time travel called "mind travel" by which, with the aid of the psychoactive drug CSD (no explanation of this acronym is given, though its mind-altering effects are probably a reference to LSD) can travel in their minds to the distant past. While mind traveling, they are unable to interact with the world of the past, but they can sense and interact with other travelers from their own time. It has been discovered that the functioning of the human mind is influenced and limited by "the undermind", a mysterious force which aids in mind travel. 

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Charlie Lester is a public relations speech writer for an oil magnate. He is married with two children. As the film opens we see him drinking heavily at an office party and then having an argument with his wife Fran after he tipsily returns home. The song "Yesterday", sung by Joey Scarbury, is played several times in the film as Charlie continues in a downward spiral. He is given a jolting reason to quit drinking after his boss scolds him for appearing half drunk at an important business meeting, then ruining a dinner party at his home and even hitting his wife in a drunken rage. He is shown afterwards literally on his knees, begging her forgiveness. It is revealed in the film that Charlie's father was an alcoholic and his mother was abusive, ignoring him while lavishing her affections on his younger brother. He breaks down as he tells this story to a therapist. In massive denial and pain, he drops out of therapy and continues to drink, culminating in a physical assault on Fran as she tries to drag him out of a bar. When he returns home, she informs him she is seeing a lawyer and filing assault charges. Charlie then becomes violently ill and vomits blood. His doctor informs him he may be suffering from liver damage and "either you stop drinking or you're going to drink yourself to death!" In a desperate attempt to stop, Charlie takes a vacation and goes alone to a seaside resort. He winds up passed out on the beach. He suffers a terrifying attack of delirium tremens and wakes up in a mental ward. Even in this desperate circumstance, Fran stays with him and his sympathetic doctor informs him he can be helped, but his recovery is entirely up to him. Shortly afterward, Charlie escapes from the hospital and goes to a bar. He calls Fran and tearfully apologizes for all the pain he has caused her. He tells her he loves her and their children with all his heart but "It's no use...there's just no point...I'm no damn good, I never was...goodbye, my heart." The final scene shows Charlie alone, drunk and hopeless on a deserted beachfront. 

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Don't Stop the Carnival revolves around the lead character of Norman Paperman. He is the middle-aged New York City press agent who leaves the noise and safety of the big city and runs away to a (fictional) Caribbean island to redeem and reinvent himself as a hotel keeper. The result is a satirical tale of tropical disaster.Don't Stop the Carnival: A Novel: Herman Wouk: 9780316955126: Amazon.com: Books The novel takes place on the fictional island of Amerigo. According to the opening of the musical (a paraphrased excerpt from the novel): 

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Lucia Lane (Jennifer Kendal) is a British author who is researching the Bollywood film industry. She falls in love and has an affair with Vikram (Shashi Kapoor), a famous Bollywood actor. The plot is complicated by the fact that Vikram is married, and his friend, Hari (Zia Mohyeddin), is in love with Lucia. 

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A murder takes place in a rural British hospital. Inspector Cockrill is tasked to determine whodunit when the head nurse is killed after revealing that the death of a patient under anaesthesia was no accident. Cockrill states at one point, "My presence lay over the hospital like a pall - I found it all tremendously enjoyable." After another murder attempt leaves a nurse dangerously ill he re-stages the operation in order to unmask the murderer. Category:1944 British novels Category:British mystery novels Category:British novels adapted into films Category:Novels set during World War II Category:Medical novels Category:Novels set in hospitals Category:Novels by Christianna Brand 

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After losing her entire family to disease, eight-year-old Mary Faber joins a gang of orphans led by Rooster Charlie, whom she looks up to as a brother. One day, after stealing some bread, Mary stumbles across Charlie's corpse and realizes that he's been murdered. Donning his clothes, she assumes the identity of "Jack" and joins the crew of HMS Dolphin as a ship's boy. While serving aboard the Dolphin, she kills a pirate during an attack on an enemy ship. As a mark of honor, her shipmates give her the nickname "Bloody Jack". 

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Grant and Fiona are a retired married couple living in rural Brant County, Ontario. Fiona begins to lose her memory, and it becomes apparent she has Alzheimer's disease. Throughout the film, Grant's reflections on his marriage are woven with his reflections on his own infidelities, and influence his eventual decisions regarding Fiona's happiness. When she feels she is becoming a risk to herself, Fiona decides to check into a nursing home, where one of the rules is that a patient cannot have any visitors for the first 30 days, in order to "adjust". Despite being wary of this policy, Grant agrees at the insistence of his wife whom he loves. During the drive to the home, Fiona acknowledges Grant's past infidelity while he was a university professor. Despite the awkward situation, the couple makes love one last time before separating. When the 30-day period ends, Grant goes to visit his wife again, only to find she has forgotten him, and turned her affections to Aubrey, a mute man in a wheelchair who has become her "coping partner" in the facility. A caregiver at the facility befriends Grant and gives him some advice and support. While seeing his wife grow closer to Aubrey, Grant becomes an unhappy voyeur when visiting his wife at the nursing home. As time goes by and Fiona still does not remember him, Grant even wonders whether Fiona's dementia is an act, to punish him for his past indiscretions. After some time, Aubrey's wife Marian removes him from the home due to financial difficulties. This causes Fiona to sink into a deep depression, with her physical well-being also appearing to deteriorate. Grant is touched by this, and visits Marian in an effort to allow Fiona to see Aubrey again. He would rather see his wife happy with another man than miserable and alone. Marian initially refuses, but the meeting leads to a tentative relationship between her and Grant. As time passes, Grant continues to visit both Fiona and Marian. He eventually succeeds in taking Aubrey back to visit his wife. But in his "moment alone" before he brings Aubrey into Fiona's room, Fiona temporarily remembers him and the love she has for him. They embrace. 

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Tilo, the titular character, is a shopkeeper born in India and trained in magic, who helps customers satisfy their needs and desires with the mystical properties of spices. Her life changes when she falls for an American man named Raven, whom the book strongly implies is Native American. Unfortunately, she chooses to disregard the rules of her training in her pursuit of romance and her decision to seek out customers outside her shop, which results in the spices inflicting punishment on her and those she cares about. To save Raven from being another victim of the spices' powerful magic, she decides to leave him after one last night where they make love. Afterwards, she accepts the punishment for disregarding the rules of her training, which results in the store being destroyed in an earthquake. She survives, and she and Raven reconcile and decide to help rebuild the shop. 

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Cosimo is arrested when he and Toto try to steal a car. In prison, he meets an old man who tells him of a “Bellini” - a perfect heist - that he could not carry out because of a life sentence. Cosimo asks his girlfriend Rosalind to find a "Mullinski" (slang for someone willing to do prison time in exchange for money) so that he can walk free and pull off the heist. Rosalind and Toto ask misfits Basil, Leon, Riley, who babysits his infant son while needing $1,000 to pay his own wife’s jail fine, and Pero "Pepe" Mahalovic, a Serbian American boxer who agrees to confess to Cosimo's crime for $16,000 but ends up being jailed alongside him. While inside, Pero gets Cosimo to tell him what the Bellini is before revealing that his own sentence was suspended, leaving Cosimo still in jail. Returning home, Pero is met by Rosalind and the other four demanding a refund. He tells them he used the $16,000 to pay off debts but will share the Bellini details. The six then decide to carry out the heist themselves. The Bellini concerns a brick building on Chester converted from a flour factory into apartments and a jewelry store. The old man in jail worked on the conversion and created a false wall between one apartment and the room with the jewelry store safe. Riley steals a video camera from a street market so that the group can get the combination by filming the jeweller opening the safe. After filming fails they hire Jerzy, a safecracker who uses a wheelchair, to teach them how to drill into the safe, whereupon Detective Babitch starts to keep a close eye on them. Then two maiden aunts with a maid named Carmela move into the long-vacant apartment, and so Leon and Basil pretend to accost Carmela while Pero comes to her "rescue" to secure a date in the hope of stealing her keys. Meanwhile in prison a guard suddenly drops dead and Cosimo uses his uniform to escape. When he confronts Pero and the others, they try to convince Cosimo that they can split the take equally, but he hits Rosalind for betraying him and threatens to kill anyone who tries to pull off “his” Bellini. Rosalind becomes disheartened and leaves the group but Pero finds that he is falling for Carmela, who reveals that the aunts will be out of town for several days. That same night Cosimo dies in a bus accident. Basil meets Leon's sister, Michelle, and they begin dating although she tells him that she wants “an honest man". After Babitch watches the group attend Cosimo’s funeral Pero decides to bribe him in exchange for turning a blind eye while they do the heist, and gives Babitch the $16,000 which he has lied about spending. On the night of the heist, Riley leaves his baby with Rosalind but while on his way to meet up at Pero's apartment he gets his arm broken by the men he stole the video camera from. He arrives with one arm in a cast and “high” from a bottleful of Vicodin. Leon, having found out about his sister’s affair, arrives to confront Basil. Basil then reveals that he can't go on the heist because he’s now taken an honest job in order to be worthy of Michelle, and leaves. During the heist itself, everything that can go wrong, does. Toto loses his pants, Pero bites off the tip of his tongue, and they find that their floor plans are out of date when they break through the wrong wall (into the kitchen) at 3 am. They realize there is not enough time left to reach and crack open the safe, but Toto finds $1,000 in a cookie jar and so they decide to heat some soup on the apartment stove so as to eat before leaving – whereupon the stove blows up. After the explosion, the group is standing at the bus stop. Riley suggests that they shouldn't see one another again, but just as he gets on the bus the other three decide to give Riley all of the $1,000 for his wife’s jail fine. Leon heads home to apologize to his sister and tells Pero to let him know when he gets another Bellini, and before Pero also leaves Toto asks him about Carmela, and tells him that it's important to have someone to walk with, more so than money. 

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The film dramatises three stories from the book: * "The Granton Star Cause": A comedy, in which Boab (Stephen McCole) is having a rotten day. His parents throw him out so they can indulge in sado-masochism and he is sacked from his job, dumped by his girlfriend, and dropped from his football team. It has elements of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. One of the characters is a pitiless, profane God who transforms him into a fly as punishment for wasting his life. Named after an Edinburgh housing district, "The Granton Star Cause" was filmed on location in Muirhouse and Pilton, including Ferry Road Drive. * "A Soft Touch": Kevin McKidd plays Johnny, a man who is cuckolded by Larry (Garry McCormack), the ruthless upstairs neighbour who steals his electricity and his wife (Michelle Gomez). Filmed on location in Niddrie. * "The Acid House": An acid trip and a bolt of lightning result in amiable schemie Coco Brice (Ewen Bremner) exchanging bodies with the baby of a middle-class couple (Martin Clunes and Jemma Redgrave). All three sections are independent, but are linked by setting and the reappearance of incidental characters, in particular Maurice Roëves who appears variously as an inebriated wedding guest, a figure in a dream, and a pub patron. All three of his parts symbolise a human manifestation of God. The film offended elements of the UK tabloid press with a depiction of a cynical, jaded, foul-mouthed God. In some English- speaking countries such as Canada and the United States it has been screened with subtitles because of the Scots vernacular and heavy Edinburgh accents. 

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A local Utah LDS Church's holds the record as having the worst basketball team in the church ball league. The team has failed to make it into the church tournament in the past 20 years. Due to rumors of this being the last year of the league, former team coach, and now Bishop Linderman (Fred Willard) has called Dennis Buckstead (Andrew Wilson) to coach a team made of clumsy misfits to the championship. Church expectations of brotherly love, sportsmanship, and fellowship fall prey to competitive fierceness in the effort to win, while Dennis works to bring unity and cooperation. 

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The plot involves the discovery of a mysterious torpedo found on the shore of Benbecula. A Naval team descends on the area to deal with the torpedo accompanied by Nicolson, an intrigued security officer. Further investigation of the torpedo reveals an international spy kit, the contents of which include a Finnish passport, British and Swedish currency, and most intriguing of all, a fragment of sheet music. Nicolson is joined by fellow security operative Grant, and together they investigate the sudden appearance of the torpedo. Their investigations meet with resistance from the locals, and when their investigations lead to a murder, it becomes apparent that someone is trying to conceal something sinister. As Nicolson comes close to learning the truth, he is lured into a trap and is injured. When he comes to, he discovers that Grant has been murdered and he endeavours to find the people responsible. He eventually uncovers an elaborate espionage operation. 

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Geraldine Liddle (Curtin) is a small town woman from New Brunswick who gains local fame as she is about to appear on a gameshow called Bring Home the Bacon (a show with a pig theme similar to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) with a top prize of $2 million dollars. As friends and family gather to watch Geraldine on television, family secrets come to surface and a physical fight occurs, bringing all the family and friends outdoors. As the fight is happening, Geraldine calls them for help with a question during the gameshow. After the question is asked, the scene turns back to the home where the fight is happening outdoors and where only Geraldine's elderly mother, who has less than her full faculties, is left alone, inside near the phone. The telephone rings and rings and rings, until finally she answers. Geraldine, realizing the senility of the woman, doesn't know whether to trust her answer. Geraldine and her husband return to announce whether she answered the question correctly or not, only to discover long buried family truths have come to light. 

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An innocent man has been turned into a walking time bomb. In 4 days, he will kill 100,000 people.http://user.xmission.com/~emailbox/koontz/books_a-o.htm 

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This game is set in the year 1969 (10 years after the original game). And begins with a Soviet KGB slide show meeting showing that the main character from Destroy All Humans!, Cryptosporidium-137, is suddenly deceased for unknown reasons. His clone, Cryptosporidium-138 (Crypto for short), made of more pure Furon DNA, is now taking his place and continuing to pose as the President of the United States. KGB intelligence reveals that Crypto-138 is the first and only Furon to have genitalia, referred to only as "The Package". Seeing the Furons as a threat to the Soviet Union, the KGB destroy the Furon mothership with a nuclear missile. Soon after, Crypto's new adventure begins. Not only must Crypto stop the KGB from preventing his and Pox's plans, he desires revenge for the destruction of the mothership. Crypto's commander, Orthopox 13, downloaded his consciousness into a holographic unit (called a HoloPox Unit) just before he died. After saving Bay City from annihilation at the hands of the Soviets, Crypto discovers that the KGB have fled to Albion and promptly follows, where he meets Reginald Ponsonby-Smythe, the James Bond- esque head of M16 (a parody of MI6), and a rogue KGB agent named Natalya Ivanova, to whom Crypto is attracted. They discover that the KGB have created a type of spore that causes humans to mutate into monsters. Eventually Ponsonby betrays Crypto, revealing he is the leader of the British branch of Majestic, Majestic Sector 16. After killing Ponsonby and puzzling over his cryptic reference that the Furons may not be the only aliens on Earth, Crypto learns that the KGB have a base on Takoshima Island. Arriving in Takoshima, Crypto has to rescue a person that calls himself Dr. Go (a parody of Julius No) from the Black Ninjas and KGB. He provides access to the KGB base hidden in the island's volcano. Inside Crypto and Natalya are addressed by the mastermind behind the spore plot, Soviet Premier Milenkov (a parody of Ernst Stavro Blofeld). Milenkov shows a film clip of his men using spores on a Takoshimese intern, who transforms into a giant Godzilla-like monster called "Kojira". After defeating Kojira, Crypto follows Natalya to Tunguska, home of "Project Solaris." In the Soviet Union, Crypto discovers that another alien race has crash-landed on Earth, The Blisk. The Blisk are an enemy that the Furons had thought they had wiped out during the Martian War a long time ago. Pox realizes that the Tunguska event of 1908 was actually a downed Blisk warship crash-landing into the Tunguskan hillside and not a meteorite. After destroying the crashed Blisk warship and rescuing Natalya from a Blisk gas bubble, Crypto meets Milenkov face to face. Milenkov then retreats to his moon base, Solaris, in a Blisk shuttle. body-snatching a human On the moon, Crypto discovers that Project Solaris is a Blisk superweapon designed to bombard the Earth with Blisk spores and radiation, granting the Blisk control of Earth as their new irradiated, water-logged homeworld. Using his ability to "body snatch," Crypto disguises himself as Soviet cosmonaut Leonid, the head scientist on the moon, and convinces the rest of the humans to go to war with the Blisk. Then Crypto manages to sabotage the weapon's firing mechanism. Upon doing so, Milenkov confronts Crypto. He then reveals that ever since the Blisk crashed, they have been controlling the Government of the Soviet Union, each Premier before him had been a Blisk, and they were responsible for several world crises; including the Cold War. After their conversation, Milenkov leaves. Crypto and Natalya battle for their various species to save the Earth by attacking and successfully destroying the Blisk Hive Mind with the O.M.G.W.T.F. virus Pox developed in his lab, but Milenkov appears and fatally shoots Natalya in the back. He then reveals his true form, a heavily armored blisk. After defeating Milenkov, Crypto relaxes in his flying saucer while Pox appears on the video monitor, congratulating Crypto and eagerly anticipating his newly cloned body. He has detected activity in the emergency cloning lab. He questions Crypto about it, then realizes that Crypto has cloned Natalya, and is extremely infuriated by this and begins yelling at him, just before Crypto abruptly shuts off the video monitor mid-sentence. Lying next to him, Natalya awakens briefly and favors Crypto with a smile and an invitation to wake her when he's ready for "re-entry." As the game ends, Crypto leers at the player and admits to having made "a few adjustments". 

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The Lost Language of Cranes was the second novel by David Leavitt, and deals primarily with the difficulties a young gay man, Philip Benjamin, has in coming out to his parents, Rose and Owen, and with their subsequent reactions. 

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The series revolves around dream masters who turn nightmares into peaceful dreams. On behalf of their clients they go around searching for nightmares which have escaped the mind of the owner and have manifested themselves into the real world, causing havoc. The nightmares are a paranormal phenomenon which have the appearance of poltergeist activity. The dream masters' goal is to defeat the nightmares, and returning them to their respective owners as pacified dreams. However, the dream masters do not interfere with an owner's life, and the owner is left to deal with the source of the nightmare. The show is characterised by haunting music, strange ghost like nightmares and the transformation of children's toys known as "play offerings" into weaponry and monsters. Unlike the anime, the manga is a lot more in-depth with the cases, for example, the first case takes up the entire first three volumes. Also, they don't just pacify nightmares and expel them from the real world, but instead they take all sorts of cases, where no dreaming is involved, but their power is required. 

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As the film begins, Tai Po (Gurmit Singh) and Vernon (Moe Alkaff) are shown to have a common pastime of playing soccer. Later, Tai Po enters a Youth Soccer Competition in a tryout, but gets hurt with his leg bleeding. Since that event, Tai Po appears to shun matches of soccer on the radio or on television while at work. Handsome Toh (Mark Lee) is then shown into the film, released from prison as an ex-convict, also with Kim (Sharon Au), who writes to her home back overseas. Handsome arrives for a job interview, meeting Kim outside Sonny's factory. Sonny's arrogant son Gavin (Robin Leong) is introduced, whom Kim stated that he changed so much after returning from an American school overseas. Turns out later Handsome faces the brunt of getting a job from Gavin. Gavin relents, but eventually gave Handsome a chance, but agreeing that ⅓ of Handsome's salary is donated to the company's soccer team. Vernon is shown with his band, The Vibrations, and they are as terrible as his singing. Tai Po, Kim and Baka fail to fix a plumbing issue with a customer, and breaks the customers expensive glass bowl worthing 15 grand. As such, Tai Po and Baka's promotion salary of 10 grand are confiscated, yet owing the customer another five grand. However their boss, Sonny Lee (Lim Kay Tong) offers them to work overtime to repay what they owe and possibly earn back their promotion pay, by manually installing a swimming pool at Sonny's estate. Gavin arrives at the office and suggests to his father by separating Baka and Tai Po and putting Tai Po's partner as Handsome, which Tai Po gasps to know Handsome is an ex-convict. Kim tells a horror story to Tai Po, which that somehow sours Handsome and his relation. While watching television in Tai Po's home with Vernon and Tai Po's kids, they come across an advertisement for a Starhub soccer challenge which the winning team walks away with tickets to the 2002 World Cup Finals. Vernon suggests that they enter by calling his old soccer mates, but Tai Po reveals about his pairing with Handsome, also gasping Vernon. Vernon arrives to register, not after a terrible encounter with the clerk Eugene (Hossan Leong), who becomes their team coach, though also horrid at soccer. The team looks as a failure, and even Tai Po could not get Handsome to join after a test which Handsome thought was an attempt to fight. Two Brazilian soccer experts, Adriano and Vernato are introduced, which they were robbed of their belongings in Singapore, but join construction workers just for a meal to satisfy themselves. Vernon asks about Sammy Best (Siva Choy) who was a soccer sports star, but his friend Ah Huat tells that Sammy now works at a construction site guard. Tai Po and Vernon try looking for him, but after told off by the foreman (Jack Neo) about how a drunkard Sammy was, Tai Po resigns to fate as failure, but then the two notice Adriano and Vernato, who are both hired into the team. Later while they are tried out, Handsome eventually joins, becoming their goalkeeper. The team fails even to a female soccer team, who are challenged straight by the Kosmos, Sonny's company team and Gavin is a player in it. The team, known as the Durians (suggested by Ah Huat who "sponsored") lost badly, getting laughed at by a drunkard field cleaner, who turns out to be Sammy himself. It was quite a hassle to get Sammy as their coach, but soon the Durians succeed winning a match. The Durians go to a KTV pub, where Handsome while singing a love song remembers Gwen (Fiona Xie), Gavin's beautiful sister and breaks out in tears while trying to confess his love for her. But he then finds Kim as a KTV girl, getting beaten up after trying to save her. He then realises he has anger management problems, resorting always to fights to settle issues. Kim tries to pacify him, also inspiring herself to be what she wants. In a party Gavin held, he is revealed to be keeping a Barbie doll, showing his extreme sadism he tries to hide from others. Tai Po's daughter Chun Huey is told off by her teacher, and Tai Po goes angry, trying to teach his children a lesson that he is a failure, but his children then tell him that he is in fact a great father, even with their deceased mother who Tai Po thought he had failed to take care of. Vernon is soon fired by his uncle at the KTV they work in, as Vernon's concerts scared customers away, resulting in the Karaoke machines replacing him. "Vernon and the Vibrations" supposedly ended their career. Vernon is also told off by his father who claims that he should wake up, becoming a singer was impossible for him. Gavin's sadism and extreme life gets on Gwen's nerves, who then resigns being the Kosmos team manager, telling off Sonny. Sonny himself, like his son becomes a sadist, even going so far to being harsh on Tai Po when Tai Po was previously his best worker. The finals to the match is soon, but the Durians and Kosmos go for a dinner party held by the organisers. In the party, the Kosmos bully the Durians, and Gwen appears to seduce Handsome while they were outside smoking. That had then broke Kim's heart, and enrages Gavin who threatens to report Handsome for molesting Gwen. Handsome angrily apologises, fortunately controlling his anger at his one enemy. Later, Vernon criticises Handsome for rejecting Kim, but Handsome criticises back about Vernon's horrid singing. The fight ends abruptly when Sammy is admitted into the hospital for liver failure. Tai Po is held down by the bill, also by his cut salary for playing soccer and not working. Sonny then approaches Tai Po, offering him 10 grand to him and the team, for their own usage. Tai Po is also relieved of building the swimming pool. However, if the money is taken, the Durians must not play in the match the next day, or Handsome, Kim, Baka and himself will be fired. The Durians meet up, which they discuss their future. Tai Po has his bills to settle, Vernon has his life to handle, and Kim has her family to support. They were thinking of giving up the match, but Eugene then scolds them for being shallow. They now are at crossroads. While visiting, Sammy tells Tai Po that he really is not a failure, Tai Po was a good player in the Youth Soccer tryouts when younger, and Sammy had seen it. The match arrives, but many of the Durians are missing. Tai Po, Baka and Handsome approach Sonny and return the money, also stating that they no longer want to work for him, wishing the Kosmos good luck in the meantime. Miraculously, the Durians arrive and play the game. Things do not look hopeful, until Adriano and Vernato escape the clutches of their abusive foreman and quit being construction workers, arriving at the match, bringing their cheering soccer fanatic construction worker mates. Sammy sneaks out of the hospital to see the game, Vernon's father watches his son and Kim supports Handsome. Tai Po realises he indeed can succeed, and Vernon does something which he has not done before. Handsome also controls his anger perfectly in front of Gavin, in which Gavin's reaction has the referee offering him a red card but sends back another player. Tai Po is tackled down hard by Gavin, but he tries his best and scores the final goal to win. The Durians triumph, while Gavin weeps over his lost girlfriend (who ironically was stolen by none other than his father) and is appalled by his doll which he claims has stopped loving him and in a fit of rage decapitates the doll, exasperating him. Tai Po, Baka, Handsome and Kim start a mobile phone shop, also having Kim and Handsome married. Tai Po has taken his kids on a holiday, and is now more well off. Vernon now has a singing career, settling in Las Vegas in America while Sammy is now a full- time soccer coach with Eugene. He signs his autograph to a customer who finds out their identity as the film ends. 

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Set in 1919, following the end of World War I, the novel takes place in the wilderness of Northern Ontario and on the battlefields of France and Belgium. Niska, an Oji-Cree medicine woman, is the remnant of her native relatives who refused to assimilate in the 19th century. She rejected European beliefs and culture and continues to thrive in the bush in a manner befitting her and her traditions. Niska’s voice is one of two narratives that complete the novel. After getting word that her closest thing to living family, Elijah, is coming back from the war, she paddles the three-day journey to meet him in town. She finds, however, that it is not Elijah but her nephew Xavier who has returned from battle. In an attempt to heal her only relative, who has clearly been sucked dry of his soul and has hardened with nightmares from the war and turned hollow by morphine, she begins to recount the stories of her past. She believes that perhaps this will revive Xavier and the Three Day Road will not be one to his demise. Similarly, Xavier attempts to stumble over his story for his aunt and unearths ghosts of his bullet-riddled past. The novel was inspired in part by real-life aboriginal World War I heroes Francis Pegahmagabow and John Shiwak. In addition it seems relevant that Boyden's father Raymond Wilfrid Boyden was a medical officer renowned for his bravery, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was the most highly decorated medical officer of World War II.[1] 

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This science fiction novel takes place in the year 2203, if we take literally the age of 250 years given for a Korean War identity bracelet that is dated 1953. A rogue planet, populated by strange machines known as Pyramids, has stolen the Earth from the Solar system, taking it off into interstellar space. The moon has been 'ignited' by alien technology to serve as a miniature sun around which both planets orbit. This new sun is rekindled every 5 years, though as the book opens, the rekindling is nearly overdue and there is fear among the populace that it may never happen again. The global population has crashed to a hundred million, due largely to the radical climate changes that followed the arrival of the alien planet. Most of the surviving humans are 'Citizens,' passive people living lives bound up with elaborate social rituals, various styles of meditation, and carefully prescribed selflessness. This constraining lifestyle frequently causes Citizens to succumb to mental breakdowns and run 'amok,' attacking anyone within reach. Persons who commit this or any other crime face ritual execution. A small minority of the population who retain their aggressive natures are referred to as 'Wolves.' They are considered to be a direct threat to the rest of society. These Wolves, however, generally see themselves as superior humans and refer to the Citizens as 'Sheep.' This labeling system is somewhat ironic, because the Wolves generally try to trick the Sheep into avoiding their settlements, while any Wolf who is caught by the Sheep is murdered. The Pyramid aliens' motives are unknown, their only visible presence being a lone Pyramid perched atop a leveled-off Mount Everest and the transparent 'Eyes' which form over individuals who have supposedly attained or approached a state of meditative perfection or 'Nirvana.' Persons who reach this stage of meditation vanish from the world to an unknown destination. 

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The series tells the story of the battle between the Earth's defenders and a demonic entity named Genma Daioh. Its first protagonist is Jo Azuma, a Japanese highschool student of the 1970s who suddenly finds out he has psychic powers and is being called along with other psychics around the globe. They are gathered by Vega, an alien cyborg warrior, and Luna, the princess of Transylvania, who have discovered the presence of Genma traveling towards the Earth with the intention to conquer it. In order to stop him, Luna and Vega train Azuma and all the other psychics to defeat Genma and thwart his destructive plans. However, despite initial victories, the manga ends in an ambiguous cliffhanger, hinting that the psychics are defeated and the Earth will be destroyed. After the premature end of the manga, the story was expanded upon by other series of the franchise, featuring time travel and battles in other realities. This is first shown in the sequel New Genma Wars, which takes place in 1999, after Genma's victory has turned the Earth into a post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled by the demon. In that place, a surviving psychic named Chinami Kagawa is entasked by Beatrice, princess Luna's daughter, to travel back to the Edo period and create a new clan of psychics who could defeat Genma. She is opposed there by Yui Shōsetsu, who has fused with an incarnation of Genma come to chase Kagawa. (This series also ties with a previously unrelated Hirai manga, Adult Wolf Guy.) The story is taken then to True Genma Wars, after Kagawa's exploits rewrote reality. In a new version of 1979, Jo Azuma, now an adult paranormal researcher and writer, is hired by a powerful woman known as Moonlight to expose the existence of psychics to the world. After several events, Jo gains the knowledge of the previous timeline destroyed by Genma, only to disappear mysteriously. His mantle is taken by his secretary Yuri Sugimura, who travels to the 7th century to meet the mystic En no Gyōja. Also, in another time plane, an ancient Greek girl named Chronos gets involved in a war against Mu, an ancient civilization populated by mysterious beasts who might be related to Genma. The next installment is Genma Wars: Eve of Mythology Chapter, though it takes place again in the original timeline, where the world was conquered by Genma. Humans now live in primitive societies, while the planet is ruled by a race of intelligent Genma beasts serving Maoh King, who now plans to give birth to an heir by raping a human woman. However, said woman, Non, manages to run away with the resultant children, two male twins named Loof and Jin, who swear to stop their father. After defeating Maoh, they travel to the past in an attempt to prevent the existence of their terrible world, but agents of Genma from the past spoil their plan by provoking a nuclear war in substitution of the original Genma victory. Nonetheless, Loof and Jin take over the new timeline, ensuring a better future for mankind there. A Hirai novel of 1979 similarly named Genma Wars takes a new route from New Genma Wars. being set on a timeline created there. A young version of Jo discovers in 1967 he has psychic powers which predict the coming of Genma, so he initiates a resistance movement from his school's literature club, named "Genken". As in the previous story, Joe disappears mysteriously, and the members of Genken are left to advance by themselves. In a sequel named Harmageddon, a member named Keisuke Takatori gives birth to a totalitary global movement based on his messiah complex. Harmageddon Girl is a side story of Genma Wars featuring Michiko, Jo Azuma's sister. She uncovers her own powers to save herself and a plane full of passengers from an attack by Genma, but is sent to ancient Greece as a result. Here, she meets Chronos, who leads her to the space in order to gather with several other characters of the franchise, among them Luna. At the end of the story, they get ready to battle Genma in his invasion of Earth. The entire franchise is revisited in a 2014 manga named Genma Wars Rebirth and written by Kyoichi Nanatsuki. In it, Luna and Stella (Luna's daughter with Jo) travel to the past in order to try to prevent the war. 

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Genma Wars is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where mankind has been subjugated by a demonical tribe known as Genma. The humans are reduced to little more than slaves for the Genma, who employ mutant armies of cyclopses, vampires, werewolves, highly intelligent simian soldiers, and other mythological beings, to keep the humans at bay. The authoritarian Genma leader, the Maoh King, desires to have an heir with immense, extraordinary power. He orders his men around the kingdom to abduct human women. The Maoh King is convinced that if he conceives a child with a human woman the child will possess amazing powers. In one case, in exchange for the safety of her village, a girl called Non submit to the Maoh King, and give birth to male twins, Loof and Jin. Loof is taken to grow up among the Genma, while Jin grows up under his mother' care, however she is labelled as a whore by her fellow kinsmen. Eventually, Loof and Jin encounter each other and plan revenge against their hated father. However, their father reveals he only created them, and the whole hybrid Human-Genma, to bring the war across the Earth, out of boredom. He throws his sons in a time portal, back to the present time, when the war was initiated, in order to stop their dystopic world. 

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In a vastly overpopulated world, businesses have taken the place of governments and now hold political power. States exist merely to ensure the survival of huge trans-national corporations. Advertising has become hugely aggressive and by far the best-paid profession. Through advertising, the public is constantly deluded into thinking that the quality of life is improved by all the products placed on the market. Some of the products contain addictive substances designed to make consumers dependent on them. However, the most basic elements of life are incredibly scarce, including water and fuel. Personal transport may be pedal powered, with rickshaw rides being considered a luxury. The planet Venus has just been visited and judged fit for human settlement, despite its inhospitable surface and climate; the colonists would have to endure a harsh climate for many generations until the planet could be terraformed. The protagonist, Mitch Courtenay, is a star-class copywriter in the Fowler Schocken advertising agency who has been assigned the ad campaign which would attract colonists to Venus. But a lot more is happening than he knows about. It soon becomes a tale of mystery and intrigue, in which many of the characters are not what they seem, and Mitch's loyalties and opinions change drastically over the course of the narrative. One of the hazards he faces is a psychopathic agent of his former company, found using the same psychological techniques used to identify targets for advertising. Mitch goes to a resort in Antarctica, only to become lost outside in a blizzard. He recovers to find that he has been shanghaied as an ordinary working stiff. His ID number tattooed on his arm has been altered so he cannot reclaim his old identity. However his skills remain intact. He becomes the propaganda specialist for a cadre of revolutionaries, in the process becoming a convert to the cause of those he once manipulated as mere consumers. In the end he confronts those who stole his life, who are not necessarily his enemies, and those from his old life, who are not necessarily his friends. 

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During one of the many monster attacks on the city where the story takes place, Silk Koharuno and her two friends attempt to get closer to the monster to get a better view. Unfortunately, the city's protector, UFO-man, comes to the rescue but inadvertently steps on them and crushes the girls to death. Feeling sorry for what he had done, UFO-man blames their deaths on the monster and promises to bring them back to life by lending them his power. However, now they must become the city's protectors as well. 

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Jason Dorrant is a lonely thirteen-year-old boy who is a suspect in the brutal murder of Alicia Bartlett, the younger sister of a classmate. Trent, an expert interrogator who is known to get confessions that seem impossible to obtain and who has never lost a case, is called in to interrogate Jason, who is Alicia's friend and the last known person to see her alive. An ambitious man looking to move up in the ranks, Trent hopes to win the favor of an influential Massachusetts senator. Trent discovers that Jason had few friends prior to the crime save for Alicia, whom he finds fascinating. He says that she is like a little old lady. Jason was the last person to see Alicia alive and is the prime suspect, although he doesn't know it – Trent tells Jason that the information he is providing is voluntary. Trent interrogates Jason in a small white-walled room with no ventilation and a single light bulb dangling from the ceiling, and he twists the information that Jason gives him into a distorted story that makes Jason look guilty of Alicia's murder. Trent makes Jason look like a violent maniac simply because he reads and watches science fiction, gaslighting him until the boy begins to doubt his own statements and innocence. Ultimately, Jason comes to believe Trent's fabrication that he is a blood-thirsty killer so strongly that he confesses to the crime. With the confession tape in hand, a triumphant Trent walks towards another detective expecting to be praised for his handiwork, but she looks at Trent accusingly and explains that Alicia's older brother was the killer, not Jason; there were witnesses, and he has been taken into custody. Alicia's older brother and a friend of his initially tried to cover up the crime, but under strict questioning their stories fell apart and Alicia's older brother confessed. The female detective accuses Trent of coercing Jason's confession, and this is reported to his superiors. The result is that Trent has successfully killed his own career; he is not demoted in actual rank, but faces permanent reassignment to overnight shifts and will never be called on to conduct interrogations again. Meanwhile, with the investigation over and Trent blacklisted by his own actions, Jason is left alone to struggle with inner demons Trent helped create. Jason is unable to decide what he is now: the same person he was before Alicia's murder, or a murderer, a reprehensible person. He ponders, "Did he kill her? No. Could he have killed her? No, but could he kill someone worthy of death? Say, a bully?" In the final twist, Jason fulfills the role that Trent assigned him, grabbing a butcher knife and heading to the local YMCA, where bully Bobo Kelton is. 

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Jean Preston (Patricia Morison) is determined to find her fiancé, Greg Jones (Bruce Edwards), who went on a safari and didn’t come back when expected. She travels to Akbar, India with Greg’s father, Colonel Jones (John Miljan), who also narrates the film, together with Wayne Monroe (Keith Richards) and the Professor (Wilson Benge). She asks about Jones at the front desk of the hotel where she stays. Although the clerk acts like he knows nothing of Jones, he immediately makes a suspicious phone call when the group leaves the lobby. While Jean unpacks in her room, a native woman named Tondra (Vida Aldana), who spied on the group in the hotel lobby earlier, knocks on the door. She tells Jean that her husband, Moya (Hassam Kayyam), spoke to her of a safari that suffered a tiger attack. Jean asks Tondra to speak to her husband. Although apprehensive to get her husband at first, she quickly fetches her husband when Jean greases her palm. Tondra returns with Moya, who recognizes Jones from a photo of Jean’s. He tells Jean that Jones traveled not with the doomed safari but with a group of ivory hunters that went to Africa. Before Moya can say more, someone shoots him with a pistol through Jean’s room window. The shooting upsets the unstable locals and the group leaves for Africa. They take a boat deep into the African jungle where they see abundant wildlife. Jean must convince Gary Lambert (Robert Lowery), who hates taking women on safaris, to be their guide. She knocks his socks off with her shooting skills with a gun. They also pick up famed safari cook, Gabby (J. Edward Bromberg), who likes to recite the poem Three Fishers to his pet monkey and tells stories of escaping his wife with belligerent verbosity. The District Commissioner of the area tells Lambert that Jones was on a mission to bust Ivory poachers and wants Lambert to do the same, which Lambert readily agrees. The rescue mission meets with turmoil and death from an unknown saboteur among their ranks. A native man tells the group rumors of a group of white she-devils in the jungle that make their native guides skittish. The women came from a lifeboat from a shipwreck many years ago. When Greg is found, it is revealed he fell for the queen, Zita (Amira Moustafa). 

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Frank Leone, a skilled mechanic in Hoboken, New Jersey, is a model prisoner nearing the end of his sentence in Norwood, a low security prison. He occasionally spends time outside prison in his garage fixing cars, playing football and spending time with his girlfriend Melissa. One night, while sleeping in his cell, guards arrive and forcibly take Leone to a brutal maximum security Gateway Prison run by Warden Drumgoole. Drumgoole explains to him that he arranged this in retaliation for a past incident in which Leone escaped from Drumgoole's previous post, Treadmore Prison, and informed the press about Drumgoole's treatment of his prisoners, after Drumgoole refused to allow Leone a one-hour furlough to visit his dying mentor. Not only did this incident result in five additional years in minimum security being added to Leone's sentence, but in Drumgoole's transfer to Gateway, a negative mark on his job record. Leone is mistreated by the guards and by a dominant inmate, Chink Weber, who acts as a trustee for Drumgoole. Leone also befriends fellow prisoners Dallas, Eclipse, and First-Base, and shows them how he deals with the hardship of prison. The foursome refurbish a Ford Mustang in the prison shop, which Eclipse nicknames "Maybelline". Leone explains to Eclipse that he was sent to prison for taking the law into his own hands when he avenged an attack on his mentor. After Leone reluctantly allows First-Base to start the car, First-Base drives the Mustang out of the garage and into the prison yard. After his joy ride ends, Drumgoole makes Leone and his friends watch as other inmates destroy the car. Leone is also sent to solitary confinement for six weeks. There, Leone is tortured by the guards who wake him at random points in the middle of the night, forcing him to face a security camera and recite his name and prisoner number. However, the guards' captain, Meissner, and one other guard become so disgusted with the crude sadism of the warden and his toadies that Meissner orders it to stop and releases Leone from confinement. Aiming to force Leone to snap and compromise his position, the warden has Chink Weber kill First-Base in the gym. Enraged, Leone attacks Chink, rendering him helpless, but before he kills him, he relents, knowing that committing such an act is precisely what Drumgoole wants. Seizing this opportunity, one of Chink's goons impales Leone from behind with a shank. As Leone recovers in the prison infirmary, another prisoner tells him that he has been hired to rape and murder Melissa. That night, Leone attempts his escape with Dallas to try and save Melissa, however Dallas lures him to a dead end, where they are captured by Drumgoole and his guards, among them, the one who posed as the prisoner who claimed he would rape Melissa. It is revealed that Drumgoole arranged this to provoke Leone into attempting an escape, in order to have a mandatory 10-year sentence imposed upon him, and convinced Dallas to assist him in his plan in exchange for an early release, though Drumgoole reneges on this after Leone's capture. Drumgoole leaves the two inmates to be beaten by the guards, but Dallas, knowing the other prisoners would kill him after setting up Leone, apologizes to Leone and electrocutes himself and officer Manly to help Leone escape. Enraged, Leone breaks into Drumgoole's office instead of escaping, takes him to the execution chamber and straps him to the electric chair. He activates the generator and secures his hand to the switch. The prison guards break into the execution viewing room, leading to an armed standoff. Under threat of being executed, the warden finally confesses to his plot to increase Leone's jail time. Leone pulls the switch anyway but nothing happens. He then reveals he took one of the fuses out before to trick the warden into confessing. Captain Meissner and his men cuff Leone, but they also take Drumgoole into custody for the legal confession. A judicial inquiry is made into the matter about the warden's corrupt behavior and Leone serves only the jail time required of him in the first place. A few weeks later Frank leaves prison to the cheers of his fellow inmates and meets up with Eclipse one last time. He wishes Captain Meissner farewell, exits Gateway to embrace the waiting Melissa. 

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When Montague Allen Stark, with the assistance of friends, attempts to summon a devil, he quite unexpectedly succeeds: Bechard possesses Prosper Nash's body and sends his soul to the astral plane. Nash awakes in a cavalier's body, with no memory, but with the old reflexes. This gets him shortly involved in a fight, and he meets up with Arizona Bill Averoff, who does not remember him, but is the image of his friend Bill Averoff, an avid Western reader. He also learns that the society is in the throes of a war with the Wotanists—or Voties, as they are commonly called (in the original 1940s magazine version, these characters are referred to as "Arries" or "Aryans", and appear to be the astral products of daydreaming German émigrés in the New York of the time). Spending the night reveals his name, as he signs it from habit, and more importantly, the existence of the Shamir. After a failed attempt to steal it, a fellow cavalier drags him back a club, which contains letters that reveal more of his past to him. In particular, he knows Alicia Dido Woodson, the double of Alice Woodson, present when the demon was summoned, but tracking her down reveals that she was kidnapped. An unremembered feud with Athos de Lilly catches up with him, and he ends up in jail, where he hears of a wizard, Merlin Apollonius Stark—the equivalent of Montague Stark—and resolves to get his assistance in obtaining the Shamir. In court the next day, he is offered an enlistment in the army. He receives orders to carry a message but also news from a private detective named Reginald Vance Kramer (apparently the astral self of a daydreaming would-be Philo Vance) that Alicia was kidnapped by Sultan Arslan Bey. Passing off the message to Arizona Bill Averoff, he bluffs his way into the sultan's castle by posing as a representative of the city's Comptroller. He finds that the sultan is Bob Lanby, in reality a bachelor and clerk at the YMCA. When the Romans and Voties attack, he convinces the sultan to send him to convey the harem and treasure to safety. Having gotten the girls to safety (in their opinion, not the sultan's) and taken a share of the treasure, he convinces Merlin Apollonius Stark to help him. He learns that the message was woefully misdelivered, and after an abortive anarchist uprising, New York City is in the middle of a battle in which the Voties have gained the upper hand. With help from Alicia, he does gain the Shamir, but when they are cornered by Voties, he has Alicia use it to escape to the mundane world. Execution the next morning is stopped by an invasion of creatures dreamed up by Montague Stark. Alicia's attempt to contact him was successful. Tukiphat, the owner of the Shamir, demands it of him, and Prosper explains the circumstances. Tukiphat summons Bechard to the astral plane, and sends Prosper back to deal with Bechard's connection there. The Shamir, which could return him, is still on the mundane plane, but so is Alicia, and Prosper has her use it to return herself to the astral plane. He goes to visit Montague Stark, and finds him throwing away his magical books. Prosper takes them: he may never be reunited with Alicia, but he intends to try. 

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The threat of the Machine Empire Black Magma causes the United Nations to establish the Solar Sentai at a summit. From the UN's Guardians of World Peace's (GWP) air force, navy, and rangers, Commander Arashiyama assembles three specialists to become Sun Vulcan. When Black Magma learns of this, he attacks the GWP's base, but Sun Vulcan debuts in time to save it. Hell Saturn prays to the Black Solar God and is rewarded with a revived Queen Hedrian, now a cyborg with a mechanical heart and a metallic afro. Black Magma multiple plots, even with Hedrian's aid, fails. Following the death of 01, Amazon Killer, (a Vader) arrives from space, destroying the Sun Vulcan Base. A new Vulcan Base is then built. The original Vul Eagle, Ryusuke Ohwashi, is replaced by a friend and master of the sword, Takayuki Hiba (who first appeared on episode 23). 

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The lead singer of a famous pop group announces a shock walkout that leaves the four background dancers behind. The four set up their own group: "Backdancers!. 

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A teenage girl purchases a baby American alligator while on vacation with her family at a tourist trap in Florida. After the family returns home to Chicago, the alligator, named Ramón by the girl, is promptly flushed down the family's toilet by her surly, animal-phobic father and ends up in the city's sewers. 12 years later, the alligator survives by feeding on covertly discarded pet carcasses. These animals had been used as test subjects for an experimental growth formula intended to increase agricultural livestock meat production. However, the project was abandoned due to the formula's side effect of massively increasing the animal's metabolism, which caused it to have an insatiable appetite. During the years, the baby alligator accumulated concentrated amounts of this formula from feeding on these carcasses, causing it to mutate, growing into a monster resembling a Deinosuchus-Purussaurus hybrid, as well as having an almost-impenetrable hide. The alligator begins ambushing and devouring sewer workers it encounters in the sewer, and the resulting flow of body parts draws in world-weary police officer David Madison (Robert Forster) who, after a horribly botched case in St. Louis, has gained a reputation for being lethally unlucky for his assigned partners. As David works on this new case, his boss Chief Clark (Michael Gazzo) brings him into contact with reptiles expert Marisa Kendall (Robin Riker), the woman who, as a teenager, bought the alligator years earlier (and has no idea that this alligator is her former pet). The two of them edge into a prickly romantic relationship, and during a visit to Marisa's house, David bonds with her motor-mouthed mother. David's reputation as a partner-killer is confirmed when the alligator snags a young cop, Kelly (Perry Lang), who accompanies David into the sewer searching for clues. No one believes David's story, due to a lack of a body, and partly because of Slade (Dean Jagger), the influential local tycoon who sponsored the illegal growth experiments and therefore does not want the truth to come out. This changes when obnoxious tabloid reporter Thomas Kemp (Bart Braverman), one of the banes of David's existence, goes snooping in the sewers and supplies graphic and indisputable photographic evidence of the beast at the cost of his own life. The story quickly garners public attention, and a citywide hunt for the monster is called for. An attempt by the police to flush out the alligator comes up empty and David is put on suspension. The alligator escapes from the sewers and comes to the surface, first killing a police officer and later a young boy who, during a party, is tossed into a swimming pool in which the alligator is residing. The ensuing hunt continues, including the hiring of pompous big-game hunter Colonel Brock (Henry Silva) to track the animal. Once again, the effort fails: Brock is killed, the police trip over each other in confusion, and the alligator goes on a rampage through a high-society wedding party hosted at Slade's mansion; among its victims are Slade himself, the Mayor (Jack Carter), and Slade's chief scientist for the hormone experiments and intended son-in- law. Marisa and David finally lure the alligator into the sewers before setting off explosives on the alligator, killing it. As the film ends with David and Marisa walking away after the explosion, a drain in the sewer spits out another baby alligator that is unseen by anyone, thus potentially repeating the cycle all over again. 

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On a rainy night, national hero Robert Forrest drives his car over a small bridge that has collapsed. He is killed and the entire United States goes into deep mourning. Admirer and renowned journalist Stephen O'Malley (Spencer Tracy) returns from Europe to write a biography of the great man. Among the throngs covering the funeral, he finds his old friends and fellow reporters, Jane Harding (Audrey Christie) and Freddie Ridges (Stephen McNally). They remain after the rest of the press leave. Forrest's widow, Christine (Katharine Hepburn), refuses to speak to reporters throughout the proceedings. However, O'Malley befriends youngster Jeb (Darryl Hickman), son of the gatekeeper of the Forrest estate, Jason Rickards (Howard Da Silva). The grief-stricken boy shows him a way into the mansion, where he meets Christine. Though she is cordial enough, she refuses any cooperation with his biography. After O'Malley leaves, Forrest's private secretary, Clive Kerndon (Richard Whorf), fearful of how the reporter will react to the brush-off, convinces Christine to offer her help so that they can steer him in the direction they want. As time goes on, O'Malley gains the widow's trust. Christine is the "keeper of the flame", protecting her husband's memory and reputation. O'Malley's instincts tell him that some secret is being kept from him. He discovers that Forrest's elderly, mentally ill mother (Margaret Wycherly) is living in a separate house on the vast estate. Despite her servants' attempts to keep them apart, he manages to speak with her and obtains more clues from her ramblings. O'Malley notices "the arsenal", an old fortification near the Forrest mansion that served as Robert Forrest's office and library. One afternoon, O'Malley observes smoke rising from the arsenal's chimney. When he asks Kerndon about the building's purpose, Kerndon (who cannot see the smoke) tells him it is only a storehouse. O'Malley slips away to investigate. He discovers Christine burning what she claims are love letters, but he suspects otherwise. Later, Kerndon telephones somebody and assures the unnamed party that he will take care of the situation. As O'Malley learns more, he finds evidence implicating Christine in her husband's death and begins to wonder if she and her cousin, Geoffrey Midford (Forrest Tucker), are lovers and murderers. However, Geoffrey's announcement of his engagement to Rickard's daughter, and Christine's reaction, discounts that theory. When O'Malley admits he cares for Christine, she finally breaks down and reveals the ugly truth. Her husband had been corrupted by the adulation he received and plotted to use his enormous influence to turn Americans to fascist ideals and gain control of the United States. She shows O'Malley papers stored in the arsenal which reveal how Forrest (backed by secretive, ultra-wealthy, power-hungry individuals) planned to use racism, anti-union feeling, and antisemitism to divide the country, turning social groups against another in order to create the chaos that would let him seize power. Christine discovered the plot the day before her husband's death. She went riding the next morning and, coming upon the washed-out bridge, could have warned her husband, but decided that a "clean death in the rain was the best thing that could happen to Robert Forrest". O'Malley convinces her to help him write a book detailing Forrest's scheme. Kerndon eavesdrops, then locks the arsenal's door, sets the building ablaze, and shoots into it through an embrasure. Christine, fatally injured, urges O'Malley to write his book. When an automobile rushes to the scene, Kerndon shoots at the passengers and is run down and killed; then they rescue O'Malley. O'Malley ultimately writes a book titled Christine Forrest: Her Life, which exposes the plot. 

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A group of thieves descend upon an Indian palace to steal a collection of valuable paintings. The group includes Lady Gee (Peggy Ashcroft), a museum curator; the Maharaja (Victor Banerjee), his sister Bonnie (Aparna Sen) who wants to sell the paintings to Sotheby's, and a few others. 

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An Indian princess (Madhur Jaffrey), long-divorced and living in self-enforced exile in 1970s London, spends time with her father's ex-tutor, Cyril Sahib (James Mason), watching film footage of Royal India and talking of a past world. There is a great deal of fascinating real-life footage and interviews with India's royalty: the Maharajas of India and the end they faced due to the 1960s socialist reforms introduced by India's then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi. 

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Lee Leander is arrested for stealing a bracelet from a New York City jewelry store. The assistant district attorney, John "Jack" Sargeant, is assigned to prosecute her. The trial begins just before Christmas, but to avoid facing a jury filled with the holiday spirit, Jack has the trial postponed on a technicality. When he hears Lee complaining to her lawyer about spending Christmas in jail, Jack feels guilty and asks bondsman Fat Mike to post bail. Fat Mike assumes that Jack wants to force Lee into an affair, and after freeing her, he delivers her to Jack's flat. Discovering that Lee is a fellow Hoosier (native of Indiana), and that she has nowhere to spend Christmas, Jack offers to drop her off at her mother's house on his way to visit his own family. On the drive, Jack gets lost in Pennsylvania and the couple spends the night parked in a field. The next morning, they are arrested by the landowner for trespassing and destruction of property, and taken to an unfriendly justice of the peace. Lee starts a fire in his wastebasket as a distraction, and the pair flees. Lee's mother, a malevolent, embittered woman, has remarried, and does not want a relationship with her daughter, whom she considers a lost cause. Jack takes Lee home to spend Christmas with his family. She is warmly received by Jack's cousin Willie, aunt Emma, and his mother, even after Jack reveals Lee's past. On New Year's Eve, Jack kisses Lee at a barn dance, and later that night, his mother visits Lee's bedroom for a talk. She reveals that the family was poor during Jack's childhood, and that he worked hard to put himself through college and law school. She asks Lee to give Jack up, rather than jeopardize his career, and Lee agrees. On the way back to New York via Canada (to bypass Pennsylvania), Jack tells Lee that he loves her, and tries to persuade her to jump bail, but she refuses. Back in New York, Jack tries to lose Lee's case by using harsh and aggressive questioning to force the jury to sympathize with her. Jack's boss has been alerted about the affair, and secretly listens outside the courtroom. Realizing that Jack may damage his career, Lee changes her plea to guilty. As she is led away, Jack wants to marry Lee on the spot. She refuses, saying that if he still feels the same way when she has served her sentence, and he has had time to consider his decision, they can marry. 

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The game follows the story of the manga series, starting in the Golden Age Arc and ending in the Hawk of the Millennium Empire Arc. 

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The protagonist of the game, Garian is a bounty hunter tasked with escorting a dangerous monster named Bilan to a prison island where it will be interred. During the voyage to the prison, Bilan escapes and Garian races to capture the monster before it reaches the captain's cabin. The time taken for Garian to reach the cabin determines the course of the game. Parallel I: The Hunt for Evil Should the player take more than four minutes to reach the captain's cabin, Bilan will kill the captain, escape and head towards the prison. Something of a disaster scenario, this parallel sees Garian pursuing Bilan who leaves a trail of carnage in his wake. After destroying Bilan at the parallel's conclusion, Garian ponders how things might have turned out differently. Parallel II: A Hunt for the Heart Reaching the cabin between three and four minutes, Garian finds Bilan threatening the captain. After defeating the monster, it goes through a surprising transformation. With Bilan no longer a threat, the game's plot comes to focus on the conflict between an organization of rebellious prisoners, the corrupt warden Kurtliegen, and a ninja woman, Kay. The longest scenario; it runs roughly twice as long as Parallels III, IV, and V combined. Parallel III: A Hunt for the Lies Accessed by reaching the captain within three minutes. Garian gets to the cabin before Bilan and locks the creature out. Bilan, again makes its way to the island and Garian pursues it. While quite similar to the first scenario, parallel 3 is not quite as bleak. It does however make a major divergence at its conclusion, where Garian makes a startling discovery. Parallel IV: A Hunt for the Truth. Parallel 4 begins when parallel 3 ends. This scenario has a stronger science fiction element to it, as it revolves around the conflict between parallel universes. Conflicting realities cause the island to become unstable, and leave Garian in poor condition. In this scenario, Garian must rescue his friends to affirm his existence, escape the island and confront the source of the chaos, though he must do it within a time limit and without the aid of save points. This is also the only scenario where the source of the game's name, Dark Savior, becomes apparent. Parallel V: Marathon of Death This scenario splits off from II. If the player encounters Bilan at the captain's cabin, but is defeated by him, then Parallel 5 begins. Garian is put through a sort of purgatory, where he must fight through a tournament, the competitors consisting of his allies and enemies from the other scenarios. Unlike the other parallels, this one has no quest component, only battles. Completing this parallel once and re-entering it unlocks a two-player mode (the second player can take control of Garian's opponents).Dark Savior Secrets FAQ , GameFAQs.com. 

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Jean-Luc Lundi lives in a superstitious village where mutant coolias (a type of pack animal) are considered a bad omen and are killed. When Lundi discovers a mutant coolia, he decides to keep it and names it Lagi. Lagi has a strange green glow in his throat and budding wings. After Lagi is full grown, Lundi takes the coolia out to try to get him to fly. While Lundi takes Lagi out, a huge ship called Shelcoof destroys Lundi's village. Lagi's green glow grows brighter, and Lagi fires arrows of light from his mouth, the trademark attack of dragons from the ancient age. Lundi chases Shelcoof on Lagi's back, but they are struck down by a mysterious dragon before they can board it. After they recover, Lundi and Lagi follow Shelcoof's trail while fending off attacks from indigenous beasts and Imperial forces, who Lundi assumes are after Lagi. He later learns that they are in fact also in pursuit of Shelcoof with the intent to use it as a weapon against rebel forces. Lundi and Lagi catch up with Shelcoof and destroy its core, in which they discover that the dragon who struck them down before had been incubating. When it emerges, it has grown to enormous size and assumed enough power to be a menace to society. In a final battle, Lundi and Lagi destroy the large dragon. 

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In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte (Holm), after six years in exile on the isle of St. Helena, has a plan to escape. Switching places with lowly French deckhand Eugene Lenormand (Holm again), Napoleon will make his way to Paris, at which time Eugene will announce the switch, allowing Napoleon to reclaim his throne. However, the plan quickly goes awry: the ship Napoleon is serving on abruptly changes its itinerary and docks in Belgium instead of France. Having to make his way to France by land (and gaining an appalling look at the tourist trap the battlefield of Waterloo has become), he is finally met at the French border by a loyal agent, Sgt. Bommell (Clive Russell), formerly of the Imperial Guard. Bommell gives him the name of another agent in Paris he can trust, Lt. Truchaut. Arriving in Paris, Napoleon is surprised to find that Truchaut has recently died. Passing himself off as an old comrade of the Lieutenant, Napoleon accepts the hospitality of Truchaut's widow, Nicole, whom everyone calls "Pumpkin" (Hjejle), and makes the acquaintance of her other lodger, Dr. Lambert (McInnerny) and her adopted young son, Gerard. The crucial flaw in the plan reveals itself when, back on Saint Helena, Eugene decides he likes living in the relative luxury of Napoleon's exile, and refuses to reveal the switch. Napoleon's French entourage find themselves unexpectedly powerless, as Eugene stuffs his face with sweets, dictates his own bawdy version of Napoleon's official memoirs, and even manages to convince his British captors that he is the true Napoleon. With no news from Saint Helena, Napoleon is drawn into Pumpkin's life. When her fruit-selling business is on the brink of failure, he applies his own talents for planning and organization, and the business becomes prosperous again. As affection develops between Napoleon and Pumpkin, Dr Lambert, who had designs on Pumpkin himself, jealously searches for some kind of dirt on "Eugene." Going through his bedroom, Lambert is shocked to find a small cameo portrait of Napoleon's young son, and realizes who "Eugene" really is. On Saint Helena, Eugene abruptly drops dead of some kind of stomach complaint (in real-life, Napoleon reportedly died of gastric cancer). Realizing that the dead man on the island is not Napoleon, the British garrison commander lays out their options: either they announce the fraud, and face heinous punishment, or else maintain the illusion, and all will be well. "Gentlemen" he tells them "what we have here is a dead emperor". Quotes The Emperor's New Clothes at IMDb When "Napoleon's" death is announced throughout France, the real Napoleon abruptly remembers his original plan and announces to Pumpkin that it is time for him to take his rightful place on the French throne. To his fury, Pumpkin is horrified and dismisses him as delusional, pleading that she loves Eugene, but hates Napoleon for taking her husband away. With no loyalist agent in Paris to vouch for his identity, Napoleon finds himself an Emperor without an army, or a friend. He is reduced to going to Dr Lambert, who he realizes stole the portrait, and demanding it back. When he demands to be told "who I am," Lambert retorts, "I will show you." In revenge for being beaten to Pumpkin's affections, Lambert lures him onto the grounds of a sanitorium, where it seems every patient is dressed up as Napoleon, and pretending to be him. Lambert withdraws, expecting him to be rounded up by the attendants, but a shaken Napoleon escapes the grounds by climbing over the wall, suffering a nasty cut on his hand from the chevaux de frise on top. Emotionally and physically exhausted, he returns home to Pumpkin's house. She lovingly tends his wounds, and whispers in his ear, "you are my Napoleon." While Gerard is looking at a pictorial account of Napoleon's life on a magic lantern, he tells the story of what really happened. It seems that Gerard, if no one else, believes his story. Deciding that he is happiest living a simple life with Pumpkin, Napoleon destroys all his mementos of his former life, except his old Imperial Guard uniform, which he leaves at the local military post as a gift for Sgt. Bommell, with a message that "Eugene Lenormand has moved on." An after-note states that Napoleon Bonaparte lived out the rest of his life in Paris and was buried next to Pumpkin; while Eugene Lenormand's body was brought back to Paris and interred with high honors in Les Invalides. 

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Marly's father just returned from the war; he is suffering from mood swings and depression, and seems to be tired all the time. Lee, Marly's mother, moves the family to Maple Hill, a town where the children's grandmother once lived, so that her husband (Marly's father) will not suffer as much as he would in the city. In Maple Hill, neighbors help one another when help is needed; they do not keep secrets from one another. The family is supported by a neighbor couple, Mr. and Mrs. Chris, who make their living with maple syrup. Marly and her brother adapt to living in the country very well, and eventually become happier there. Their father's condition also improves tremendously. When Mr. Chris has a heart attack during sugaring time, Marly's family steps forward to return the kindness that the Chrises have shown them. They collect the entire crop of sap and boil it down, but they are certain that they lack Mr. Chris's deft touch with making syrup. When Mr. Chris is allowed to return home, it is the moment of truth: is their syrup as good as Mr. Chris's? Mr. Chris himself is unable to detect any difference. Marly reflects that the recovery of her father and Mr. Chris, the growing strength of bonds within her family, and the second chances for life and love are the true miracles of Maple Hill. 

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In 1794, in Marseille, Désirée Clary makes the acquaintance of a Corsican, Joseph Bonaparte, and invites him and his brother, General Napoleon Bonaparte, to call upon the family the following day. The next day, Julie, Désirée's sister, and Joseph are immediately attracted to each other, and Napoleon is taken with Désirée. He admits to her that the poor Bonaparte brothers need the rich dowries of the Clary sisters. Later, Désirée learns that Napoleon has been arrested and taken to Paris. Napoleon eventually returns to Marseille, tells Désirée that he has been cleared of all charges, but has been ordered to track down royalists in Paris. Désirée begs Napoleon to leave the Army and join her brother in business, but he scoffs at the idea and instead proposes marriage. Désirée accepts and lends Napoleon the money to return to Paris. Napoleon tells her that he will always love her and will return soon for their wedding, but, as the months pass, Désirée starts doubting him and goes to the city where she meets General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. She learns that Napoleon is engaged to the wealthy Joséphine de Beauharnais. Désirée contemplates suicide, but Bernadotte, who has fallen in love with her, stops her. Later, in 1797, Napoleon, now France's leading general, has succeeded in conquering Italy, and Désirée lives in Rome with Julie and Joseph. She soon tires of Rome, however, and decides to return to Paris, where she meets Napoleon, now married to Josephine, who announces that he will be leaving for a new campaign in Egypt. Bernadotte is thrilled to see Désirée again and proposes marriage to her. By July 4, 1799, Désirée and Bernadotte have happily settled into married life and have a son, Oscar (Nicholas Koster). On November 9, 1799, Napoleon is proclaimed First Consul of the French Republic and asks Bernadotte to join his council of state, and Bernadotte agrees. Several years later, Napoleon is proclaimed emperor, and at his coronation, he takes the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowns himself. Five years later, desperate for an heir, Napoleon divorces Josephine, and Désirée comforts her former rival, before Napoleon's upcoming marriage to the 18-year-old Marie Louise of Austria. Napoleon involves France in more wars, and Bernadotte is approached by representatives of King Charles XIII of Sweden, who wishes to adopt him and make him the heir to the throne. Désirée, stunned by the news that she will one day be a queen, nevertheless supports her husband, and eventually Napoleon allows both of them to leave Paris. In Stockholm, Désirée does not fit in with the royal family and asks to go home. Eight months later, she attends a ball in Paris at which Napoleon shows off his new son. Napoleon makes veiled threats about Bernadotte's alliance with Russia and announces to the crowd that she will be held hostage to ensure Sweden's support while his army invades Russia and captures Moscow. Napoleon's army is defeated, and he visits Désirée, asking her to write a letter to Bernadotte, requesting his help. Désirée realizes that Napoleon still loves her and came more for her than to seek her husband's help. Soon after, during the War of the Sixth Coalition, Bernadotte leads one of the armies that overwhelms Napoleon, and the triumphant general reunites with Désirée before returning to Sweden. Napoleon's exile to Elba is short-lived, however, and after the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon retreats with his personal army to the Château de Malmaison. Representatives of the allied armies ask Désirée to speak with Napoleon, hoping that she can persuade him to surrender. Napoleon agrees to speak with Désirée alone, and muses on what his destiny would have been if he had married her. Napoleon proclaims that he has given his life to protect France, but Désirée gently tells him that he must do as France asks and go into exile on St. Helena. Commenting on how strange it is that the two most outstanding men of their time had fallen in love with her, Napoleon gives Désirée his sword in surrender and assures her that her dowry was not the only reason that he proposed to her many years ago in Marseille. 

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Compiler (as in a source code compiler) features two girls, Compiler and Assembler, who arrived on earth from 2-D cyberspace to play a "game" in which they will delete the real world and reform it. However, they move in with two young men called Toshi and Nachi and lose interest in the game. After Toshi is injured and the game is cancelled, two beings called Plasma and Compiler 2 are sent in to erase the girls. 

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Bengali immigrant Sushila Sen (Shabana Azmi) lives in London with her son Manek (Navin Chowdhry) who is musically gifted. She supports them both as a caterer of Indian food, while Manek studies the piano with Madame Sousatzka (Shirley MacLaine), who is a Russian-American immigrant. Madame Sousatzka, while highly talented, never succeeded as a pianist and thus lives through her students, particularly talented ones such as Manek. Manek is soon forced to choose between Madame Sousatzka and his mother, who both compete for his attention. 

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A US Air Force command center receives information that an unknown aircraft is approaching from Europe. The alert status of the Strategic Air Command's (SAC) bomber forces is raised, a standard precaution against a sneak attack. The unknown aircraft then disappears from radar, causing the alert status to continue to increase, eventually leading to the bombers being sent into the air to the fail-safe points. From there, they can proceed to their targets only if they receive a special attack code. After a short time, the unknown target is re-acquired and identified as an airliner. The threat level is immediately reduced, and the SAC fleet is sent a recall order. A technical failure at the height of the alert allows the attack code to be accidentally transmitted to Group Six, which consists of six Vindicator supersonic bombers (footage of Convair B-58 Hustler bombers is used in the film). Colonel Grady, the head of the group, tries to contact Omaha to verify the fail-safe order (called Positive Check), but Soviet radio jamming prevents Grady from hearing them. Concluding that the fail-safe order and the radio jamming could mean only nuclear war, Grady orders the Group Six crew towards Moscow, their intended destination. At meetings in Omaha, at the Pentagon, and in the fallout shelter of the White House, American politicians and scholars debate the implications of the attack. Professor Groteschele, a civilian adviser, suggests that the United States follow this accidental attack with a full-scale attack to force the Soviets to surrender. The President of the United States (unnamed but apparently modeled on John F. Kennedy) refuses to consider such a course of action. Instead, the President orders the Air Force to shoot down the bombers. Air Force brass protest, stating that the fighters cannot easily catch the bombers and will run out of fuel over the Arctic Ocean in the attempt. The President orders them to try anyway, and the six "Skyscrapper" supersonic fighters (F-104 Starfighter-like aircraft) in the area engage their afterburners and fire their rockets in an attempt to hit the bombers. The fighters crash into the sea, and the pilots are lost. The President contacts the Premier of the Soviet Union, identified in the book as Nikita Khrushchev, and offers assistance in attacking the group. The Soviets decline at first; however, they soon decide to accept it. At SAC headquarters, a fight breaks out over the very idea of working with the Soviets to shoot down their own aircraft. Air Force General Bogan attempts to stop the attack, but his executive officer, Colonel Cascio, wants it to continue. Cascio attempts to take over command of SAC, but is stopped by the Air Police. However, precious time has been wasted. Meanwhile, the Soviet PVO Strany air defense corps has managed to shoot down two of the six planes. The Soviets accept American help and shoot down a third plane. Two bombers and a support plane remain on course to Moscow. Bogan tells Marshal Nevsky, the Soviet commander, to ignore Plane #6 (the support plane) because it has no weapons. Nevsky, who mistrusts Bogan, instead orders his Soviet aircraft to attack all three planes. Plane 6's last feint guarantees that the two remaining bombers can successfully attack. Following the failure, Nevsky collapses. As the two planes approach Moscow, Colonel Grady uses the radio to contact SAC to inform them that they are about to make the strike. As a last-minute measure, the Soviets fire a barrage of nuclear-tipped missiles to form a fireball in an attempt to knock the low-flying Vindicator out of the sky. The Vindicators shoot up one last decoy, which successfully leads the Soviet missiles high in the air. However, one missile explodes earlier than expected; the second bomber blows up, but Colonel Grady's plane survives. With the radio channel still open, the President attempts to persuade Grady that there is no war. Believing that such a late recall attempt must be a Soviet trick, Grady ignores them. The nearby explosion of the Soviet missiles has given the bomber crew a huge radiation dose, and Grady tells his crew, "We're not just walking wounded, we're walking dead men." He intends to fly the aircraft over Moscow and detonate the bombs in the plane. His co-pilot agrees, noting, "There's nothing to go home to" under the belief that the United States has already been devastated by a full-scale nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. When it becomes apparent that one bomber will get through Soviet defenses and destroy Moscow, the American President states that he will order an American bomber to destroy New York City at the same time, with the Empire State Building as ground zero; that also involves a grave personal sacrifice, as the First Lady is visiting New York, and the President decides not to warn her. On hearing this, the supposedly atheist Communist leader bursts out with "Holy Mother of God!" He is appalled but realizes that it is the only way to prevent a worldwide nuclear war which will probably destroy humanity as "others" (presumably the Soviet military) would not accept the unilateral destruction of Moscow, and would depose him and retaliate. The bomb is dropped by a senior general within SAC, who orders his crew to let him handle the entire bombing run by himself to assume all the responsibility; he then takes his own life. 

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The time is the early-to-mid-1960s, the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. An unknown aircraft approaches North America from Europe. American bombers of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) are scrambled to their fail safe points near Russia. The bombers have orders not to proceed past their fail safe points without receiving a special attack code. The original "threat" is proven to be innocuous and recall orders are issued. However, due to a technical failure, the attack code is transmitted to Group Six, which consists of six Vindicator supersonic bombers and four escort fighters. Colonel Grady, the commanding pilot of Group Six, tries to contact SAC headquarters in Omaha to verify the fail-safe order (called Positive Check), but due to Soviet radio jamming, Grady cannot hear Omaha. Concluding that the attack order and the radio jamming could only mean nuclear war, Grady commands Group Six towards Moscow, their intended destination. At meetings in Omaha, the Pentagon, and in the fallout shelter of the White House, American politicians and scholars debate the implications of the attack. Professor Groteschele suggests the United States follow this accidental attack with a full-scale attack to force the Soviets to surrender. The President orders the Air Force to send the four escort fighters after the bombers to shoot down the Vindicators. The attempt is to show that the Vindicator attack is an accident, not a full-scale nuclear assault. After using their afterburners in an attempt to catch the bombers, the fighters run out of fuel and crash, dooming the pilots to die of exposure in the Arctic Sea. The fighters fail to destroy any bombers. The President of the United States contacts the Soviet Premier and offers assistance in attacking the group. The Soviets decline at first; then they decide to accept help. Meanwhile, the Soviet PVO Strany air defense corps has managed to shoot down two of the six planes. After accepting American help they shoot down two more planes. Two bombers remain on course to Moscow. One is a decoy and carries no bombs. The other carries two 20 megaton devices. General Bogan tells Marshal Nevsky, the Soviet commander, to ignore the decoy plane because it is harmless. Nevsky, who mistrusts Bogan, instead orders his Soviet aircraft to pursue the decoy aircraft. The Soviet fighters are then out of position to intercept the final American bomber. The decoy's feint guarantees that the remaining bomber can successfully attack. Following the failure, Nevsky collapses. As the bomber approaches Moscow, Colonel Grady opens up the radio to contact SAC to inform them that they are about to make the strike. As a last-minute measure, the Soviets fire a barrage of nuclear- tipped missiles to form a fireball in an attempt to knock the low-flying Vindicator out of the sky. The bomber shoots up two decoy missiles, which successfully leads the Soviet missiles high in the air and Colonel Grady's plane survives. With the radio open, the President attempts to persuade Grady that there is no war. Grady's son also attempts to convince him. Under standing orders that such a late recall attempt must be a Soviet trick, Grady ignores them. Grady tells his crew that "We're not just walking wounded, we're walking dead men," due to radiation from the Soviet missiles. He intends to fly the aircraft over Moscow and detonate the bombs in the plane. His co-pilot notes, "There's nothing to go home to." Meanwhile, the American president has ordered another American bomber to circle over New York City with 40-megaton payload, which should be dropped in case of the bombing of Moscow. The American ambassador in Moscow reports about the final moments of the Soviet capital before being vaporized from the blast. The American bomber receives an order to drop its bombs over New York City in order for the destruction of Moscow to be reciprocated and a Third World War avoided. It was earlier revealed that the American President's wife was in New York while the events of the film transpired, meaning she would be killed in the blast. The pilot of the American bomber, General Black, commits suicide with a lethal injection just after releasing the bombs. 

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Sammy (Ayub Khan-Din) and Rosie (Frances Barber) are a married couple, both leading a promiscuous bohemian lifestyle until Sammy's father (Shashi Kapoor) comes to visit to escape past issues. 

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In Queen Boadicea's Britain, the Ancient Goodies are wearing animal skins, and Graeme's spectacle frames are made from wooden twigs. They live in a small one-room stone house, which is very dark, and, so that they can have extra light in their house, Graeme smashes some of the stones out from a wall with a club to make a hole. The Romans are gradually taking over England, and even Tim states that the Romans' woad is better quality than the English woad is. Graeme and Bill are horrified at Tim's approval of Roman woad and refuse to touch the stuff — but Tim puts the Roman woad onto his face, anyway. A Roman ambassador arrives at their house on 'foot', and the Goodies hide from him. The ambassador, however, turns out to be a messenger, and he comments that the Emperor wants the Goodies to go to Rome. The Goodies attempt to ride to Rome on their wooden tandem, but they have trouble with the tandem so they travel to Rome on foot, instead. When they come to a cross-road, with three roads diverging from the one they are on, they are undecided as to which road they should take. However, there is a signpost with the word "Rome" pointing to each of the three roads. Also, the Goodies have a map with the words "All roads lead to Rome", so they decide to take different routes from each other — finally ending up at exactly the same spot as each other, at exactly the same time. In Rome, the Emperor goes onto a balcony to talk to his subjects, but the Romans do not want to listen to him, and throw fruit and vegetables at him (which the Emperor then picks up, and, looking at the people outside the Palace, he asks them: "Did you throw that? … Cheeky!"). The Emperor meets the Goodies and tells them that he wants them to take over the entertainment. When the Emperor later complains about his life, Tim comments that he would like to be Emperor — so the Emperor hands over the position to Tim (who immediately sets up vacation areas all over Rome and intends to invite people from all over to come to Rome). Graeme, who is in charge of entertainment, arranges it, including sending out invitations to people from other lands to come to Rome. Meanwhile, the Vandals, who have also received the Goodies' invitation to go to Rome, are on the move, burning and pillaging everything in moi their wake. The Vandals are led by the ferocious and fearsome "Attila the Hun". The Goodies go to the Colosseum to entertain the spectators, including throwing hoops onto nails, and, in so doing, inadvertently inventing the five Olympic Rings. The Vandals arrive and the Goodies make a hasty retreat away from the area, with Tim carrying a lit torch so they can see their way. As the Goodies run through the streets of Rome, the flaming torch burns clothes which are hanging on clotheslines. Emperor Tim also finds a violin in a glass case, with the words "Break glass in case of fire". Following the instructions, Tim opens instead of breaking the glass and removes the violin, which he then plays — while, in the distance, the fire, which was accidentally started by Tim's torch, takes hold and burns Rome. As they run away, life holds one final surprise for the Ancient Goodies. 

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Angela is a 10-year-old girl trying to cope with a dysfunctional family and is on a quest to "purify" herself. Her parents, Mae and Andrew, are former performers who have resigned themselves to the loss of their dreams. They are now having problems in their relationship. Mae has drastic mood shifts that bring her from manic happiness to utter misery. Andrew tries to hold everyone together, but Mae's vacillations are becoming more than he can manage. Angela tries to cope by inventing an imaginary universe of 'order' for herself and her 6 year old little sister, Ellie. Left to figure out everything for themselves, she grabs at scraps of religion, superstition, and fantasy to try to make some sense out of the world and understand the difference between good and evil. Adrift, she and Ellie concoct magical rituals and have visions of fallen angels and the Virgin Mary; reading signs in the way a towel falls off a chair or a tool falls off a truck, they set off to find their way to heaven. They wander through the neighborhood, meet a lot of strange people, and try to find a way to absolve themselves of whatever 'sins' they may have committed, and 'go to heaven'. At first, the stories that Angela tells Ellie are mainly meant to scare her into submission. But as time goes on, and her mother succumbs to mental illness, Angela becomes obsessed with the idea that the only way her mother is going to get better is if she and her sister can wash away all of their sins. Angela may have inherited her mother's mental illness that is now beginning to manifest itself. Angela does appear to display some common attributes of what could be described as religious mania brought on by schizophrenia or a similar mental illness that involves visual and auditory hallucinations. 

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Sheriff Jack Shepherd is tasked with investigating a mysterious blood-covered boy who shows up at his station one day. The boy appears to be supernatural in nature, and manifests unusual powers such as the ability to read minds or show other people his memories by touching them. Meanwhile, an unseen stalker is killing and butchering people in the woods. The audience is led to believe that the weird bloody boy is some sort of supernatural killer, similar to Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. It is revealed near the end of the movie that the dead across the world are rising up and seeking revenge on the people who killed them. These dead manifest as blood-covered humans that seek out and kill their original killers. If a killer has more than one victim, all the victims merge into a single composite being. The blood-covered boy is one such being, made up of 6 people from the community who were killed by the stalker some time before. He is going around reading people's minds to learn the identity of his killer. The killer stalker turns out to be a local older woman, who has been murdering people in the community for some time. Her family was killed when the local dam broke, and in revenge she has been killing everyone involved with the dam, as well as their families. The bloody boy eventually tracks her down and kills her, just as she is about to kill Jack. As the bloody boy walks away through the woods, he is suddenly attacked and killed by another bloody creature, this one much larger and more demonic-looking. The identity of the second blood creature is never explicitly revealed, but from the creature's appearance it is implied to be the old woman from earlier. 

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Two factions have laid claim to the planet Barclow: humans from Metralubit, and the Chelonians. But instead of fighting, for nearly two hundred years, the two sides are the best of friends. The Doctor, Romana and K-9 arrive to find an important election looming. K-9 begins a career in politics, Romana reunites with an old friend, and the Doctor discovers a plot to alter the war's friendly nature. And what has Galatea, leader of the beautiful Femdroids, got to do with this? 

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In Cirque Du Freak two best friends, Darren Shan, and Steve "Leopard" Leonard go to see the Cirque Du Freak, an illegal and mysterious freak show. They see many amazing events and "freaks", along with Larten Crepsley, who has a performing spider as well. Steve recognizes Mr. Crepsley as a vampire, and after telling Darren to go home without him, corners Mr. Crepsley and demands he be turned into a vampire in exchange for keeping Mr. Crepsley's identity a secret. Mr. Crepsley unwillingly tastes Steve's blood, but Mr. Crepsley says it's evil blood, and rejects Steve, who promises when he grows up, he'll kill Mr. Crepsley and become a vampire hunter. Darren, who was watching this, unbeknownst to Steve and Mr. Crepsley, tries to avoid Steve from then on, thinking Steve is really evil. A few days later, Darren goes to the Cirque Du Freak, and steals Madam Octa, Mr. Crepsley's performing spider, because of his love for spiders, and also steals a flute that controls Madam Octa. As long as Darren is playing the flute, he can control the dangerous spider. However, when Steve visits, he and Darren play with Madam Octa, who bites Steve when Darren loses concentration when his sister, Annie, comes into the room. Steve is poisoned and sent to the hospital (Darren told only Annie about Madam Octa and that she's poisonous) and the doctors can do nothing. Darren goes to Mr. Crepsley and begs him for an antidote to save his best friend, and they make a deal: Darren becomes a half vampire, and Mr. Crepsley gives him the antidote. Mr. Crepsley and Darren give Steve the antidote, and later turns Darren into a half vampire. Darren finds living his normal life as a vampire impossible, as he apparently ages much slower than normal kids and cannot control his thirst for blood, as when he accidentally attacks one of his friends and licks the blood off his scraped knee. Darren then tries living with his family, but isn't capable of this, after almost killing Annie. He returns to Mr. Crepsley. In order to avoid explaining his becoming a vampire to his family and friends; as well as not merely running away for that would keep the family in hopes he would return, Darren fakes his death. Mr. Crepsley breaks Darren's neck (which does no harm) and throws Darren off Darren's own house. Later, Mr. Crepsley unburies Darren from his coffin, and takes him to be The Vampire's Assistant, however before this happens, Steve finds out about Darren being a vampire, and tells him he'll kill "Creepy" Crepsley and Darren, along with all other vampires. In The Vampire's Assistant Darren Shan and his vampire mentor, Mr. Crepsley, have gone back to the Cirque Du Freak, where Darren makes friends with Evra Von, a freak who has certain snake like traits. Later, Darren and Evra meet and befriend Sam Grest, and later Reggie Veggie (R.V.). R.V. is a nice, earth- loving person. However, Reggie Veggie soon learns that the freaks are feeding on animals. Darren tries to tell Mr. Tall, the circus owner, but is always interrupted and soon forgets. However, he finally tells Mr. Tall, and the Cirque moves the location, when Reggie threatens to call the police. A few days later, the Cirque is performing; Darren, however, is not performing. He goes to investigate, when he hears a noise near the wolfman's cage. Reggie is there trying to free the wolfman, whom he believes to be a trapped animal, when the wolfman bites off Reggie's hands, and kills Sam. Mr. Crepsley tells Darren that if a vampire drains a human of blood, the vampire would keep a part of the person's spirit with them. Darren willingly drinks blood for the first time to keep part of Sam's spirit alive. In Tunnels of Blood (set in the month of December), a vampire named Gavner visits Mr. Crepsley, and soon Darren, Evra, and Mr. Crepsley travel to what later is revealed to be Mr. Crepsley's birth city. Mr. Crepsley disappears several times for what Darren and Evra presume to be business, so they act as if they are on holiday. Later, Darren is looking for a Christmas present for Evra when he meets Debbie Hemlock, a girl whom he likes, and the two soon begin dating. Darren and Evra, later, see a news report about dead bodies being found, but dry of blood; they suspect it is Mr. Crepsley and secretly follow him. Believing they are about to stop a murder, they ambush Mr. Crepsley as he was watching a man. However, it turns out the real murderer was a vampaneze (a kind of creature that is like a vampire in every way except they always kill the human they feed on, and have a purple tinge to their skin as a result of the amount of blood they drink) named Murlough, who kidnaps Evra. Mr. Crepsley and Darren set off to the sewers where Darren wanders off in a fit. He is soon kidnapped by Murlough, as a deal is made to trade with Murlough: Debbie for Evra. Later, Darren and Murlough go to Debbie's house, where Murlough mistakenly attacks what he believes to be Debbie, only to find out he was set up. Mr. Crepsley soon appears and, after a short fight, kills Murlough. It is soon revealed that Darren had drugged Debbie and her family and planned all of this with Mr. Crepsley after Murlough's demise. Before departing from Debbie forever, Darren decorates the Christmas tree in her room as he heads back to rescue Evra. 

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Eight years have passed since Darren Shan was "blooded" by his colleague in blood, Mr. Larten Crepsley. The Vampire Council will be gathering again soon, as it does after every 12 years, and Darren has to accompany Mr. Crepsley to the Vampire Mountain, a mountain where all the vampires share a safe haven in the mountain's caves, to be presented to the ruling committee of the Vampires - the Vampire Princes. Six years have passed since the events in Tunnels of Blood and eight years in total in Darren's vampire life. Darren is whisked away by Mr. Crepsley to a perilous and torturous journey to the Vampire Mountain. Whilst Evra Von the Snake-Boy has grown up, and will not be accompanying Darren in his journey, Darren and Crepsley are accompanied by Mr. Desmond Tiny's two of the many workers – the Little People. One of them is Lefty, a Little Person named after his limp by Darren and Evra. On their journey they encounter a cave which is splattered with a dead vampire's blood, Gavner Purl - a friend of Crepsley's, the blood of a dead vampaneze, and a mad bear who had been infected with vampaneze blood (hence the madness) and thus attacked Darren, who with a little help from the Little People and a pack of wolves whom he had befriended, killed the bear. After the fight, it is then revealed that Lefty, a Little Person, is actually named Harkat Mulds and can speak. He has been given the ability by Mr. Tiny to give the Vampire Princes a message about a person who will lead the vampaneze in a war against the vampires. The company hurries on even more tensed than ever, and are welcomed into the Vampire Mountain by Seba Nile, Mr. Crepsley's mentor. Soon after, Darren meets a friendly and a soon-to-be Vampire Prince, Kurda Smahlt, a pacifist, a cartographer and probably the only vampire to be invested as a Prince because of his wit; Vanez Blaze, the one-eyed and caring Games Master; and Arra Sails, one of the very few female vampires, with an extraordinary sense of balance. Soon, Darren and Crepsley attend one of the Vampire Council sessions, and it is decided, that because Larten Crepsley blooded a child for no obvious or logical reason, Darren would have to prove himself that he is worthy of being a part of the Vampire Clan by passing the Trials of Initiation or the Trials of Death - five of many tasks which a vampire must perform to show their physical strength, courage and bravery. Darren agrees to this, out of affection for Crepsley so that he may not be shamed, and also because of his own desire to prove himself. He, however, remains oblivious to the fact that the price for failing a Trial is death on stakes, until it is too late to take back his word. 

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Little Vera on Watermark Films DVD (with English subtitles) Young VeraHer age isn't stated in the film, but she has finished school and her father repeatedly asks her if she has received her college acceptance yet. is a girl around twenty who just finished school. Her parents want her to apply for university, but at the moment she prefers going out with her best friend, Lena, dancing, party and nightlife. Vera loves listening to American and Western European rock and pop music and wears clothes and make up inspired by some of her idols such as Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Debbie Harry. She lives with her mother and her alcoholic father, Kolya, who are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with her choice of friends and what they consider her decadent lifestyle. They wonder why she can't be more like her brother Victor, a doctor living in Moscow. At an underground dance party that is broken up by police, she meets Sergei, and they immediately fall in love. It turns out Sergei is an old friend of Victor, who, in town for a visit, calls on his friend only to find him alone with his sister. Vera and Sergei decide to marry, but her parents object. Vera convinces them to accept the planned marriage by falsely telling her mother she is pregnant. Sergei's first meeting with her parents is disastrous, and he leaves with Vera without finishing dinner, but he soon comes to live with them. The tension between Sergei and Kolya increases and comes to a climax on Kolya's birthday. Fed up with the drunken Kolya, Sergei locks him in the bathroom, where Kolya breaks the basin. When he is let out of the bathroom, he stabs Sergei in the side with a knife, the wound requiring a long convalescence in the hospital. Vera's mother tries to convince her to tell the authorities that Sergei accidentally caused the wound to himself, to avoid Kolya being sent to prison. Victor, visiting from Moscow, prescribes tranquilizers to calm the despondent Vera. The family goes to the beach for a picnic, ostensibly to help take Vera's mind off the situation. Vera believes, however, that it is a ruse to persuade her to lie about the stabbing. A storm suddenly comes up, and as the family prepares to leave, Vera is nowhere to be found. Kolya searches for her and the two are seen embracing on the beach. Vera testifies that her father was not to blame for what happened to Sergei. She visits him in the hospital and explains that the family needed Kolya to survive. Sergei now seems uninterested in her, and tells her to go away. Back home at her parents, she finds herself alone and starts drinking and taking the pills. Victor arrives and rescues her. Sergei escapes from the hospital and soon arrives on the scene. When Vera asked Sergei why he came back, he replies, "Because I was scared". As the film ends, Vera asks Sergei if he loves her. Kolya sits alone in the kitchen once Vera has been put to bed. He slowly collapses and calls out to Victor and then Vera. It is assumed that he dies. A subplot involves Andrey, a former classmate of Vera, who is infatuated with her and wants her to marry him. At the beginning of the film, Andrey is about to leave for naval training and attempts to persuade Vera to come home with him, but she spurns his advances. Later, she meets him on her way home from the hospital after visiting Sergei. He explains that he is on leave for only one day and again tries to arrange a tryst, only to have Vera resort to physical violence to fend him off when he attempts to force himself on her. 

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Visiting the British Museum, Nyssa is soon kidnapped leaving the Doctor and Tegan to face the consequences of an ancient Egyptian prophecy. 

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In The Lake of Souls Darren embarks with Little Person, Harkat Mulds to find Harkat's true identity. They are forced to do difficult tasks, but they later find the truth in the Lake of Souls. He is later identified, at the end of the book that Harkat is Kurda Smahlt (a vampire traitor) who betrayed the clan to save the vampires and vampaneze from the War of Scars. Even though Harkat met Kurda, he still exists. In the Lord of the Shadows Darren and Harkat return to Darren's hometown, in which Darren finds out that his sister, Annie, has grown up and has a kid. Meanwhile, Darren and Harkat meet a boy whose name is Darius. They take him around the Cirque Du Freak, and give him a free ticket. Tommy, Darren's friend from before he was a half vampire, is seen at Cirque Du Freak and is later killed at a soccer game. Darren is badly injured by R.V. and Morgan James, and is going through the purge. Later at the end of the book, Debbie, Darren, Harkat, Vancha, Alice, and Evra go after Morgan James and R.V. when Shancus is kidnapped by R.V. and Morgan, and kidnap Darius, who is revealed to be Steve's son (Mr. Tall is killed in the act, when Morgan James and R.V. come). Then they are lured to the old cinema theater in which they first went to the Cirque. There they meet Steve and work out a deal: Steve gives Shancus to Darren, and Darren gives Darius to Steve. However, Steve twists and breaks Shancus' neck, killing him. Steve, Morgan James, and the other vampaneze escape, but not before Steve reveals that Darius is Annie's son. In the Sons of Destiny Darren goes to Annie's house and tells her about some parts of his vampire life. After much catching up, it is revealed that Annie had dated Steve and that while pregnant, Steve had raped her, left them, and never came back. Annie and Darius then flee to away from Darren, to avoid danger from Steve and the Vampaneze. However, before they do, Darren drinks the vampaneze blood in Darius (in the Lord of the Shadows, it is revealed that Steve blooded him) and they switch blood, making Darius a vampire, and Darren both vampire and a little vampaneze at the moment. Darren, Alice, Vancha, and Debbie go back to the Cirque Du Freak and an all-out battle against the freaks and vampaneze begins. After a long duel, Darren kills Steve, and lets Steve kill him by angering Steve and saying "guess what Steve? I did want to be a vampire, and Mr. Crepsley turned me into one!". Later, Evanna the witch fishes Darren out of the Lake of Souls, and Mr. Tiny makes him a Little Person. Shortly thereafter Darren is to die. Mr. Tiny reveals that he is Darren and Steve's father, and tampered with time to make them go against each other to bring about the end of the world because he loves violence, and not much violence was going on with the humans. Mr. Tiny then sends Darren back in time, to the night where he and Steve first saw the Cirque Du Freak. There, Darren scares off young Darren from going to the balcony and discovering Steve wanting to be a vampire. It is told that the world will replace Darren and Steve with other people, as Darren never found out about Mr. Crepsley being a vampire and never kidnapped Madam Octa. Darren, before dying, gives Mr. Tall (who is still alive, due to them being back in time) his diaries for young Darren to read and "change the names, and turn the diaries into a book, that way "they" can know how it really happened." 

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After the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) goes to Egypt, under the pretext of being named the executor of the will of the young Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII (Richard O'Sullivan) and his sister Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor)'s father. Cleopatra convinces Caesar to restore her throne from her younger brother. Caesar, in effective control of the kingdom, sentences Pothinus (Grégoire Aslan) to death for arranging an assassination attempt on Cleopatra, and banishes Ptolemy to the eastern desert, where he and his outnumbered army would face certain death against Mithridates. Cleopatra is crowned Queen of Egypt, and begins to develop megalomaniacal dreams of ruling the world with Caesar, who in turn desires to become King of Rome. They marry, and when their son Caesarion is born, Caesar accepts him publicly, which becomes the talk of Rome and the Senate. After he is made dictator for life, Caesar sends for Cleopatra. She arrives in Rome in a lavish procession and wins the adulation of the Roman people. The Senate grows increasingly discontented amid rumors that Caesar wishes to be made king, which is anathema to the Romans. On the Ides of March in 44 BC, a group of conspirators assassinate Caesar and flee the city, starting a rebellion. An alliance between Octavian, Caesar's adopted son, Mark Antony (Richard Burton), Caesar's right-hand man and general as well as Marcus Ameilius Lepidus put down the rebellion and split up the republic between themselves. Cleopatra is angered after Caesar's will recognizes Octavian instead of Caesarion as his official heir, and returns to Egypt. While planning a campaign against Parthia in the east, Antony realizes he needs money and supplies, and cannot get enough from anywhere but Egypt. After refusing several times to leave Egypt, Cleopatra gives in and meets him in Tarsus. The two begin a love affair, with Cleopatra assuring Antony that he is much more than a pale reflection of Caesar. Octavian's removal of Lepidus forces Antony to return to Rome, where he marries Octavian's sister, Octavia, to prevent conflict, upsetting and enraging Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra reconcile and marry, with Antony divorcing Octavia. Octavian, incensed, reads Antony's will to the Roman senate, revealing that the latter wishes to be buried in Egypt. Rome turns against Antony, and Octavian's call for war against Egypt receives a rapturous response. The war is decided at the naval Battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BC, where Octavian's fleet, under the command of Agrippa, defeats the Antony- Egyptian fleet. Cleopatra assumes Antony is dead and orders the Egyptian forces home. Antony follows, leaving his fleet leaderless and soon defeated. Several months later, Cleopatra manages to convince Antony to resume command of his troops and fight Octavian's advancing army. However, Antony's soldiers abandon him during the night; Rufio (Martin Landau), the last man loyal to Antony, kills himself. Antony tries to goad Octavian into single combat, but is finally forced to flee into the city. When Antony returns to the palace, Apollodorus, not believing that Antony is worthy of his queen, convinces him that she is dead, whereupon Antony falls on his own sword. Apollodorus then confesses that he misled Antony and assists him to the tomb where Cleopatra and two servants have taken refuge. Antony dies in Cleopatra's arms. Octavian and his army march into Alexandria with Caesarion's dead body in a wagon. He discovers the dead body of Apollodorus, who had poisoned himself. Octavian receives word that Antony is dead and Cleopatra is holed up in a tomb. There he offers her his word that he will allow her to rule Egypt as a Roman province in return for her agreeing to accompany him to Rome. Cleopatra knows her son is dead and agrees to Octavian's terms, including a pledge not to harm herself. After Octavian departs, she orders her servants in coded language to assist with her suicide. Octavian realizes that she is going to kill herself and he and his guards burst into Cleopatra's chamber and find her dressed in gold, and dead, along with her servants, and the asp which killed her. 

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The story is set in the Depression years of the 1930s, when a rich London financier, Henry Warren, suffering from health problems and a broken marriage, decides to disappear from his old life, and travel incognito in the industrial North, now plagued with unemployment. In the fictional town of Sharples, whose only shipyard has just closed, he is taken ill and admitted to hospital, where he is mistaken for one of the unemployed. After a successful operation, and a burgeoning friendship with Alice, the hospital’s almoner, he takes stock of the local situation, and resolves to use his wealth to help the community. Knowing that the shipyard is for sale at a knockdown price, he buys it secretly, but finds that he can only attract business from a dubious oil-rich Balkan state, in need of tankers. To float the new company, Warren must sign a prospectus, declaring falsely that the yard is well-placed to make a profit. But when the oil-state suffers a revolution, its business is lost, and the only way to save the yard is for Warren to take personal responsibility for the deception, earning him two years’ jail. On his eventual release, he revisits Sharples, to find that the yard has managed to prosper, thanks to new rearmament projects, and the management has erected a bronze plaque, honouring his part in saving the local jobs. When he is recognised, the whole town rushes to greet him, including Alice who has been loyally awaiting his return. 

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A seemingly mild-mannered teacher, Professor James Anders (Robinson), is an American working in Rio de Janeiro. Bored with years of teaching, Anders retires and sets about putting together a team to pull off a diamond heist during the Rio Carnival in Brazil. With the help of a youthful friend, now a successful criminal, Anders recruits a team of four international experts to carry out the robbery: Gregg an English safecracking specialist, Agostino an Italian mechanical and electronics genius, Jean Paul a French playboy (whose job it is to seduce the only woman with a key to the building holding the diamonds, the lovely Mary Ann), and Erich a German ex-military man (at the movie's ending, it will become clear that Anders' young friend had ordered the German to kill the other members of the team after the job is finished). The team develops a series of mechanical devices to defeat the layers of protection built within the building in which the diamonds are stored, mainly photocells which crisscross the entry corridor, and the new "Grand Slam 70" safe system: an alarm triggered by any sound detected near the safe room by means of a sensitive microphone listens for sounds while the safe and its environs are secured. Although the presence of the latter system is found by the team only one day in advance and at first this seems to impose a stop to the entire action, Agostino is able to find a genial solution to overcome the problem, so that the action can start. The team successfully enters the safe using a pneumatic trestle to bypass the photocell beams by crawling over them, accesses to the safe room with the Mary Ann's key stolen by Jean Pauland, move the safe to the corridor using shaving cream to dampen their sounds, and finally open the safe with specific nitroglycerin charges. However, the following day the police are alerted by Mary Ann, who has found that the safe key had been temporarily taken, and all the four members of the team are killed during their escape. Anders ends up with the diamonds in a small letters case, sitting in an outdoor cafe...but loses them in the film's last scene in Rome to a thief gang on a motorcycle. 

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The people had long suffered under Det Morson's power. When at last, the wizard Mor joined the fight, Det and his infamous Rondoval castle were destroyed. But the victory was not complete, for the conquerors found a baby amidst the rubble: Det's son, Pol. Unwilling to kill the child, Mor took him to a parallel world where technology ruled and the ways of magic were considered mere legends. He substituted Pol for a baby of the same age, using a spell to persuade the parents to recognize him as their own. In order to retain the balance between the worlds, Mor took the baby from the other world and brought it back to his own, leaving it with a local artisan, Marak. 

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Three nerdy frat boys, Calvin, Jimmie, and Keith, follow and spy on the Tri-Delta sorority group, which is holding an initiation ceremony. Sorority members Babs, Rhonda, and Frankie prepare for the ritual while newcomers Taffy and Lisa wait. Observed by the frat boys outside their house, the two initiates get spanked from a paddle and are sprayed with whip cream during the initiation. While the girls clean themselves, the boys enter the house; the girls catch them there. The boys are then sent, with the pledges, on a mission to steal a trophy from a nearby bowling alley. Unbeknownst to them, Babs's father runs the mall where the bowling alley is located and watches the group through security cameras. The group enters the bowling alley and encounters Spider, a biker burgling the alley with a crowbar. With her help, they break into the trophy room and, upon accidentally dropping the bowling trophy, unleash an imp named Uncle Impie who offers each of them one wish for freeing him. Jimmie is granted his wish of gold stacks, Taffy her wish of being the Prom Queen, and Keith his wish of having sex with Lisa. Then Uncle Impie attacks the sorority trio from the camera; Frankie is turned into the Bride of Frankenstein; and Rhonda is turned into a demon minion; Babs flees. After Babs is rendered unconscious from touching the mall's doors (which Uncle Impie has electrified to keep the group from leaving), the group finds out that the wishes requested were not really granted, with Jimmie's gold made out of wood and Taffy's dress disappearing. The minions kill Jimmie and use his head as a bowling ball, and Lisa tries furiously to have sex with Keith. Spider and Calvin hide from Rhonda in a closet, where they find a pistol; they shoot Rhonda, then flee. After escaping Lisa, Rhonda kills Keith by shoving his face into a stove, and the minions pull Taffy apart. Babs awakes and fights Rhonda, shoving her into the alley where she is seemingly killed by Spider, with a bowling ball. With Rhonda dead, Babs is possessed and turned into a demon minion. Calvin and Spider find the janitor, who reveals that the Imp was summoned to help a lousy bowler become a champion, and the Imp was trapped for 30 years due to the creature killing people (the bowler was blamed and executed for the deaths). Meanwhile, after Babs kills Lisa with a paddle, she is burned to death with a Molotov cocktail tossed by Calvin. After Spider and Calvin find the janitor dead, they are chased by Frankie with an axe. Spider gains the upper hand and decapitates her, and the severed head knocks the doors open. While Calvin starts up a car and is attacked by Rhonda from the backseat, Spider successfully traps Uncle Impie in a box. Calvin's struggles to control the car, and ends up crashing upside down; Calvin apparently survives this and Rhonda is killed from the crash. In the morning, Spider drives Calvin to her house in her motorcycle while Uncle Impie is seen trapped in the box at the curb, asking someone to let him out. 

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Pol Detson, son of Lord Det, has come home, now a powerful sorcerer of unsurpassed natural ability. But Pol is still an untrained talent, a "madwand". To take control of his powers, to rule in his father's place, he must survive arduous training and a fantastic initiation into the rites of society. During this process, Pol discovers that he is being monitored by a powerful magician. He has recurrent dreams of opening a portal into another world where a dark bestial erotic magic reigns supreme. Eventually he is drawn to a castle occupied by two magicians who are working to make the dream real, and want him to take his father's place in the scheme, so they can all reinvent themselves as gods in the new world. Pol's loyalty to the world that he lives in, which will be destroyed by the dark world, causes him to resist and, with the help of a dragon, he stops the portal being opened. One of his enemies is killed and the other flees by flying away. He leaves behind a garment containing a label that says "Made in Hong Kong". The story implied that a sequel was necessary to complete the story, but no sequel was ever written. 

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Ashok (Madhavan) and Julie (Sridevi Vijaykumar) have been friends ever since childhood. There are living in Ooty. They don't share any love interest. Ashok falls in love with Nandini (Jyothika), a rich girl with whom he marries, and although Julie's closeness to Ashok initially irritates Nandini, she subsequently accepts it. Julie falls in love with a guy called Michael D'Souza (Vineeth), a cricketer who's hoping for a place in the Indian cricket team and Ashok happens to be his main rival for a place in the Indian team. When Ashok gets selected, Michael's father strikes a deal with Ashok that the marriage between his son and Julie will only take place if Ashok steps down and lets Michael substitute him and tells Ashok to cut his friendship with Julie so he doesn't interfere in Michael's and Julie's way, to which Ashok agrees. Ashok acts as an unwilling person to his friend Julie. Julie decides to quit staying at Ashok's house and plans to stay in Michael's house. Ashok plans to sell his property and give the amount to Julie. At last Ashok and his wife Nandini plan to go to Mumbai as Ashok's friend says that he can arrange a job for Ashok. Ashok and his wife vacate their house without informing to his friend Julie. Julie and Michael come to know the true reason why Ashok is leaving Chennai. Julie and Michael go to railway station to find Ashok and are not able to find him. To find Ashok easily, Julie sings a song and it is heard by Ashok causing them to reunite. Ashok finally plays for the Indian team and their children become friends too. The movie ends on a happy note. 

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Set in a drought-ridden rural town in the West in Depression-era America, the play tells the story of a pivotal hot summer day in the life of spinsterish Lizzie Curry. Lizzie keeps house for her father and two brothers on the family cattle ranch. She has just returned from a trip to visit pseudo-cousins (all male), which was undertaken with the failed expectation that she would find a husband. As their farm languishes under the devastating drought, Lizzie's family worries about her marriage prospects more than about their dying cattle. A charming confidence trickster named Starbuck arrives and promises to bring rain in exchange for $100. His arrival sets off a series of events that enable Lizzie to see herself in a new light. 

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True Blue is a film adaptation of Topolski's book of the same name. Although names and events were changed, it tells the story of the 1987 Oxford Cambridge Boat Race, from the perspective of Topolski and Macdonald. Directed by Ferdinand Fairfax, this low-budget film was made by Film4 Productions, starring Dominic West, and Josh Lucas. The film opens with a fancied Oxford crew losing by 'almost seven lengths' to Cambridge. Macdonald and Ross (a sobriquet for the real life Chris Clark) are seen in the losing crew. The crew's various reactions are shown, and later Ross pledges to bring some American oarsman over to get one of the famous Oxford Blades. The film cuts to the next year where the recent world champion Daniel Warren (Dan Lyons) arrives in Oxford with some other Americans. Not all are happy about the new arrivals, however, and are concerned for their seats in the boats. We then see a montage of training sequences before the Fours Head of the River Race, for which the top boat is changed at the last minute at the instigation of Warren, prompting fury from the ejected crew member. The crew goes on to finish 28th, a very unimpressive placing for a Varsity squad boat. Topolski is then shown berating the squad, and the other coaches share concerns about the form of the athletes, particularly Ross. Topolski decides to look at the results of the Trial Eights race, which initially looks good, but is marred by a clash of blades. The Americans later rebel against the coaches and say they will walk out if Ross is not selected. In the end none of the Americans row and Topolski goes with a less experienced crew. After initial tensions the crew comes together and trains well for the last few weeks before the race. On race day the crew wins by around four lengths. 

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Johnny Walker, a student at fictitious Ashcroft High School, is the top high school quarterback prospect in the nation, and is being heavily recruited by many schools. His best friend, Leo Wiggins, thinks he should hold out for the best offer while his girlfriend, Georgia, wants him to go to State University with her and get a solid education. The various colleges offer him everything he could possibly want — hot girls, cars, cash, free room and board, etc. One school even buys Leo a car, while another offers to provide him with male companions if he isn't interested in women. His coach, Wayne Hisler (who Johnny hates), even tries to sell him out by striking a deal with one of the interested colleges to become their next head coach, if he signs their scholarship offer. Although he has all the skills a coach would want in a quarterback, Johnny is unsure where he wants to go. Being tempted by the offers, praise, and attention, his ability to make good decisions is blurred. Johnny begins to get a "big head", which irritates his family. After he returns home dressed in a gaudy outfit, his mother reminds him not to forget about what's important. Johnny visits State University, and asks the head coach what he can do for him in order to convince Johnny to sign with State. The coach tells Johnny he will give him a scholarship, a good education, and a chance to earn the starting QB job, and that's all he'll give him. He tells Johnny that he is headed for a lot of trouble if he signs with the colleges that are giving him gifts and money, which is a violation of NCAA rules. Johnny dismisses him out-of-hand. Later that night, Johnny and Leo end up in a motel room with three girls. Chief Elkans, the local sheriff (and Georgia's strict father, who has a grudge against Johnny), then turns up after the girls falsely accuse them of rape. Coach Hisler visits the two in the local jail, and tells Johnny that either he can sign with Piermont University, the college Hisler was hired at, so they can both prosper, or he can end up in prison on the fake charges for a long time, which would jeopardize Johnny's career. While sitting in jail, Johnny discovers that Leo had something to do with his predicament, and is disappointed in him. Nevertheless, Johnny forgives Leo. On Signing Day, the entire world watches his press conference with anticipation. Coach Hisler then calls the other four top prospects from Johnny's high school team up onto the stage with him and Johnny, where he announces that they will all be at Piermont that next school year, with Hisler as head coach, and Johnny as quarterback. When Johnny has a chance to speak, he states of the embarrassment and shame he has put on his family, friends and mostly himself, as he lost that edge. Johnny then decides that he would rather not play than to be treated special just for being able to throw a football, thus also choosing not to sign with Piermont or any schools. The Walker family and Georgia are pleased with Johnny's decision, but Hisler, refusing to accept this as fact, threatens him. When the other four players refuse to sign with Piermont as well, everyone begins to go crazy. Floyd Gondole, the NCAA recruitment investigator comes on stage, and announces that since day one he's been watching the recruitment of Johnny very closely. He then states several of the worst offending colleges will be under investigation for recruiting violations, including Ol' Tex & UCC (the first two colleges Johnny visited), and Piermont, the latter who framed Johnny and Leo for rape. Afterwards, many of the other schools think they still have a chance to sign him, and beg him to reconsider them. The sports agent causes a huge melee, but Johnny walks away with Leo and Georgia. He is then seen running down a hallway to the office of an unknown Athletic Director. It turns out to be Ned Sanders, the head coach of State University, who accepts Johnny, and officially offers him a scholarship, after he says that he just wants a good education and a chance to play football. After signing with State, he drives off with Georgia and Leo. Over the credits, you see Johnny playing the drums while watching the collateral damage for all of the people caught in the recruitment scandal (including his former coach, who is in jail). 

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The story is written as if it is an autobiography by Barney Panofsky recounting his life in varying detail. Barney's version of events may be viewed as that of two unreliable narrators, in that his recollections are told from varying mental states and then posthumously edited by his son. Underlying the story of Barney's three marriages is the mysterious disappearance of his friend Boogie. Though there is no body, police suspect murder, and Barney himself is tried but acquitted of murder. 

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Elebits (a portmanteau of "electronics" and "bits") are small creatures that coexist with humans and are the world's source of electric energy, powering all machines and appliances. Following a thunderstorm, they cease producing energy and go into hiding, causing a blackout. Kai's parents, who are Elebit researchers, leave home to investigate the Elebits' unusual behavior. Meanwhile, Kai, who possesses dislike towards, and jealousy of, Elebits because his parents spent more time researching them than they do on him, decides to use his father's Capture Gun to capture the Elebits and restore the electrical power. He also feels responsible for the Elebits' unusual behaviour because the storm happened right after his wish that all the Elebits would go away. Kai's adventures lead him through the town and towards the amusement park. He is contacted via phone by his parents, who reveal that a lightning bolt during the thunderstorm created a previously undiscovered type of Elebit, the Zero Elebit, determined to be cause of the blackout. Kai travels deeper into the amusement park and finds that the Zero Elebit is absorbing all other Elebits and dangerously increasing in size. Kai manages to subdue and tame the Zero Elebit, lifting its influence on the Elebits. Discovering the Zero Elebit was causing all the trouble in hopes of making friends, Kai takes pity on the helpless Zero Elebit and decides to adopt it. Kai reunites with his parents and they travel back home together. 

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Matt Masters (John Wayne), a Wild West circus star in the mold of Buffalo Bill Cody, bought a bankrupt circus in 1885 and successfully rebuilt it into a combination three ring and Wild West extravaganza, mixing Wild West Show acts with conventional circus acts in a winning combination. He has successfully toured the United States for more than a decade. Now that the century is about to turn, he wants to take his show to Europe. His Circus Boss, Cap Carson (Lloyd Nolan), is against taking the show across the Atlantic. He maintains that Europe is bad luck for American circuses. He also calls Matt on his reason for making a European tour: Masters wants to find the lost great love of his life, Lili Alfredo (Rita Hayworth), and figures that this tour will smoke her out if for no other reason than to see her child, Toni Alfredo (Claudia Cardinale), Masters' adopted daughter. One of his Western stars and wannabe-partner, Steve McCabe (John Smith), also attempts to dissuade Masters, but to no avail. Masters buys a freighter, renames her the Circus Maximus, and the show sails for Europe. At Barcelona, the first port of call, the Circus Maximus capsizes at the pier and puts the show in the toilet. Masters has to release most of his performers, board out his animals, and go back to performing an act for the Ed Purdy Wild West Show, a staple on the European circus circuit. Down but not out, Masters doesn't waste the disaster. "While touring Europe at Ed Purdy's expense," as Masters puts it, he, Cap, Steve and Toni scout acts that will enable Masters to relaunch the Matt Masters Circus bigger and better than ever. His first new hire is Tojo the Clown and the Wire-Dancing Ballerina (Richard Conte and Katharyna respectively). They have a unique act; Tojo is dressed as a clown but walks the high wire over a cage full of lions while coaching the Ballerina (his niece Giovanna) as she dances on a wire on the ground. Backstage, Masters discovers that Tojo is an old acquaintance — Aldo Alfredo, brother-in-law of his lost love Lili Alfredo. Despite his reservations at hiring a possible enemy Masters takes the act on and neither he nor Aldo admit to Toni, who is Aldo's niece, that they have met before; or that Tojo the Clown is her uncle. Aldo assures Matt that the vendetta is over, and Giovanna begins training for the ballerina act she will perform on the high wire. His second new act is Emile, a French animal trainer who has a spectacular act involving lions who lie down on him in the ring. Masters offers to take him on if he will switch from lions to tigers (Masters has many tigers but few lions). The trainer is adamant that he does not want to change to working with tigers; his wife persuades him to do so. By the time the circus is ready to re-launch, Emile has so adapted to working with a different variety of big cat that when a couple become ill, he demands that Masters hire a doctor for "HIS tigers." The third addition to the performers' roster is Margo Angeli, an artist of the high trapeze, coincidentally where Toni wants to work instead of in the Wild West show or as part of Clown Alley, where Matt has her working. In reality, Margo is the vanished Lili Alfredo, haunted by the guilt of having been caught up in a love triangle, blaming herself for the death of her flyer husband who had fallen — or did he miss Aldo's catch on purpose after learning he was part of a love triangle? She had run away from the world of the circus and kept on running, finding solace first in the Church and then in the bottle. As Masters had hoped, the lure of her daughter brought Lili out of hiding. She speaks to her daughter during a performance of Ed Purdy's Wild West Show without identifying herself, and Masters spots her. The two have an intense confrontation in a bar, ending with Masters slamming a full bottle of brandy down in front of Lili and telling her that she needs to decide whether the booze or her child is more important to her; but that if she doesn't pull herself together, as far as he's concerned she is dead to him. Lili quits drinking and goes into training to seek a position in the new Matt Masters Circus, then in winter quarters near Madrid. Meanwhile, Toni has fallen for Steve and he for her, despite a difference in their ages of at least a decade. Matt has to come to terms with the fact that his adopted little girl is a woman grown, with a mind of her own. "Margo's" reappearance helps, and she is secretly amused by Toni's attempts to pair her off with Matt. Matt's doing pretty well on his own, as Toni observes with pleasure. She loves her adopted father and wants him to be happy. Inevitably, the truth comes out. The afternoon of the rehearsal for the first show of the circus season in Vienna, with Masters demanding of his performers the same show they will put on that evening, Toni finds a poster of The Flying Alfredos in her wagon living quarters with "Suicide" daubed on it in red. She also finds a newspaper clipping of the Flying Alfredos that allows her to identify "Margo" as her mother. There is a stormy confrontation with many passionate, hateful words on Toni's part between her, Lili and Matt; and Matt has to tell her that he was the second man in the love triangle. Toni curses both of them and runs out, just before a bugle call summons the show to Dress Rehearsal. The rehearsal opens to empty seats with Grand Parade, with the performers marching in behind the flags of the nations whose citizens are in the show: the United States, Great Britain, France, Imperial Germany, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, Italy, and many more. Partway through Grand Parade, a fire breaks out in Wardrobe and spreads to the Big Top. Fast action by Lili, Matt, Steve, Toni, Cap and Aldo prevents injury to the circus performers and manages to save about half of the tent from the flames. The one positive thing to come out of the fire is a rapprochement between Toni and Lili. Matt somehow obtains permission from the Emperor to set up the circus in the grounds of the Imperial Palace. The show is a smash success, with a new act headlining: Lili and Toni Alfredo performing a swing-over routine fifty feet in the air. Ultimately Matt, Lili, Toni, and Matt's new partner and Toni's new fiancé, Steve, are shown taking bows to the applause of the people and the Crown. 

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Restrepo places most of her novels in Colombia during times of political struggle, though her recent 2012 novel Hot Sur is set in the United States, albeit its main protagonist is a Colombian woman. She intertwines mystery, love, and relationships to capture the interest of her readers. She writes about the daily struggle to survive in a country where society is damaged by war and corruption. Her novels have at least one obstacle to overcome where the main character must show strong will in order to battle their obstacles; however, sometimes it is easier for them to do so with help from a loved one. 

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A nameless narrator (voiced by Mako Iwamatsu introduces us to the conflict. "In the beginning, there was only darkness. Then light shown in the void, and a new world was born. A realm forged from the elemental forces of earth, wind, water, and fire. The nexus of an eternal war waged between the forces of light and darkness, between chaos and order, which destroyed the world in a mighty cataclysm. Unto this broken realm came the overlords: Beautiful Aenna, Goddess of the Waters. Steadfast purity of crashing waves and thundering waterfalls. Fiery Epothos, Warrior of the Rising Sun. Volatile guardian of the sacred flame. Devious Durlock, Master of Metals, and Lord of Stone! Keeper of the secrets of the earth! And Wicked Helamis! Queen of Storms and Chaos, mother of hurricanes, leaving havoc and destruction in her wake. Now the mightiest of the overlords prepare for the ultimate confrontation, the time has come for the Wrath of the Gods to be UNLEASHED!" The game features campaigns for each of the four characters, at varying difficulties, following their story of achieving domination of the realm. 

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